Those Days
by tinyhobbit
Summary: In first year of Hogwarts, Sirius Black and Lucy Chalke became good friends. As the years pass, they begin to feel something more, but how easy will it be to find love with a war going on? SB/OC and a little of JP/LE in later chapters!
1. Prologue

_I don't own Harry Potter._

Those Days

Prequel

"Ouch!" Harry exclaimed as he hit his head on the bed. He pulled himself out from underneath it, rubbing the back of his head. That _really_ hurt. He shook his head, and looked at the book he'd found. On the front, it said:

_To Sirius, _

_Happy Birthday!_

_This is so you can remember that we had fun during these hard times._

_Love you forever_

_Lucy xx_

Harry raised his eyebrows. Who was Lucy? Sirius had never mentioned a Lucy before, as far as Harry knew. He opened the book at the first page. There was a picture of James, Harry's father, Sirius, Remus and Peter Pettigrew. Harry looked at the next picture. It was of two girls, sitting and laughing. Harry recognised the first immediately – she had long, straight, red hair, Lily, Harry's mother. The other girl had curly brown hair, and she was smaller than Lily. He guessed this was Lucy.

He turned the page.

Harry immediately recognised Sirius, dancing with the girl he had seen before. He recognised the Gryffindor common room in the background, and both were wearing Hogwarts robes. So this girl, Lucy, had gone to Hogwarts. The next picture was more posed – Sirius and Lucy were smiling and waving at the camera, sitting in the snow.

There were lots of Sirius, the girl Harry suspected to be Lucy, James, Lily, Remus and Peter. He turned the page again, and found one of a wedding. His eyes widened slightly, as he realised it was _Sirius' _wedding. Sirius was _married?_ The girl, Lucy, was standing beside him wearing a white wedding dress. James was standing to Sirius' left, laughing, and Lily was on Lucy's right.

"You okay, Harry?" Harry jumped as he heard a voice by the door and slammed the book shut. He looked up and saw Sirius leaning against the wall.

"Sirius!"

"What you got there?" He said, coming forward.

Harry suddenly felt very embarrassed. This was clearly private, or Sirius would have told him about it beforehand. He felt bad for snooping, and went a little red.

"I'm sorry, I was just...I dropped something under the bed and found this...I didn't mean to pry, it's just I...I'm sorry..."

Harry trailed off as Sirius took the photo album from Harry's hands. He watched as the laughter disappeared from his godfathers eyes, and his face went slightly paler.

"I had totally forgotten I even owned this..." he murmured so quietly Harry had to strain his ears to hear it. "How could I..."

He sat down on the bed, opened the first page and smoothed it out, before laughing slightly, but Harry saw the tears coming to his eyes.

"Sirius?" he questioned softly.

Sirius looked up.

"Who..." he sat down next to his godfather. "Who is that?" he asked, pointing to the girl sitting next to Lily.

Sirius smiled, an echo of past happiness and Harry thought he detected sadness also, "That," he said, "That is Lucy Chalke."

_Welcome to my new story! This is just the prequel, so I'm sorry it's so short, but I have written the first chapter, and it shall be uploaded in a few minutes...This is totally planned out, the _whole story!_ Which is extremely unlike me, so I'm feeling very proud. I have every single chapter planned out, so all I need to do is write them, so no writers block for meee! I'm hoping... Anyway, I hope someone out there enjoyed this! =D If you did, please review =D _


	2. Chapter 1  First Year

_I don't own Harry Potter._

Chapter one – First year

"Joe?" Lucy called out tentatively into the crowd of excited school children. "Joe?"

She couldn't see him anywhere. She could feel tears coming to her eyes, as she realised that maybe he had deserted her. She knew that her big brother didn't particularly like her, but she thought that when their parents had asked him to look after her, he would actually do it, he wouldn't just leave her to fend for herself.

However, this was an impressive sight, she quickly realised. The _Hogwarts Express_ was and old fashioned steam train, which she thought was pretty cool. After checking her watch, she realised that she should get on the train if she wanted a compartment, as it was five minutes to the time it would be leaving. On the way there, she passed a tall boy who was standing away from the woman she assumed was his mother, as she was shouting at him.

"Don't you _dare_ give me that look, Sirius Black!"

"I'm not sitting with Bellatrix on the train, mother. Full stop." He replied in a voice that was filled with attitude.

"And if I get a letter to tell me that you are not behaving in a way that upholds the family name of Black, then you will be in _serious_ trouble!"

She also passed a boy with glasses and messy black hair, whose mother was trying desperately to push it down, a girl with a round face who was nodding absent-mindedly, clearly not paying attention to what her father was saying to her, and a boy whose mother was hugging him desperately, as if she never wanted to let him go.

Lucy tried to pull her trunk onto the train, but was having difficulty. She was small, and not the strongest, if she was honest. Just as she was about to give up, and try and find her brother (she hoped that maybe he would do a good deed for once in his life) the boy she had seen being berated by his mother popped up out of nowhere.

"Need some help?" he asked with a cheeky grin. He had long, wavy black hair, and was quite good looking...for an eleven year old. She felt a bit wary of him...he must have done something really bad for his mother to be that angry at him.

She decided to take a chance, and she nodded. He grinned again, and pulled it on easily.

"Thanks," she said, feeling a bit embarrassed at how easily he had done it.

He laughed, "No problem. Sirius Black," he reached out a hand to shake.

Apprehensively, she took it. "Lucy Chalke," she said, with a small smile.

"Cool! Well, I have to go, I've got to make some blood traitor friends!" he said with a laugh. He jogged away with a wave. Lucy was left feeling very confused, and trying to work out what on _earth_ a "blood traitor" was.

She realised she was blocking the entrance to the train, and dragged her trunk up the carriage until she found an empty compartment. She managed, somehow, to get her trunk into the luggage bit, and then sat down. She felt really nervous suddenly, and her hands were shaking. She had never been good at making new friends, and she was hit with the worry that she would make no friends at all at her time at Hogwarts...what if she ended up going through school with absolutely _nobody? _

She would be such a _loner! _Nobody would like her...they wouldn't even know she existed!

She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts at a knock on the door. She looked up, and saw a girl about her age, with long, pretty red hair, and bright green eyes.

"Can I sit here?" the girl asked. "I don't...I don't really want to be alone, and I can't find Sev..."

Lucy wasn't sure who this "Sev" was, but she was happy to have some company, and she nodded quickly.

"I'm Lily Evans," said the girl with a smile.

"I'm Lucy Chalke," she said for the second time that day. "Are you a first year?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, are you?"

"Yeah."

There was an awkward silence as the train began to move off. The girls sat quietly for a while, Lucy desperately wanting to say something, but having absolutely no idea what to say.

"I'm really scared," she blurted out.

Lily seemed to sigh in relief, "Thank goodness I'm not the only one!" she exclaimed.

"Do you have any witches or wizards in your family?" asked Lucy.

"No," said Lily, and she looked slightly sad about it. Lucy wondered why, as she realised the other girls eyes were slightly red. She did not want to ask, though, and decided to leave it. "Do you?"

"My big brother, Joe, is...he's in Ravenclaw."

"I read about that. It's one of the houses, isn't it?" asked Lily.

Lucy nodded, "Yeah. Really, _really _smart people go in it, though, and I don't think I'll get in." She said the last bit slightly miserably. Her brother always did better than her, and her parents loved him...but they never saw how mean he could be to her sometimes.

"I think I want to be in Gryffindor," said Lily, "From what I've read, it seems to be the best. Although, as long as I don't get in Slytherin, I think I'll be fine!"

"Lily!" someone, exclaimed, bursting through the door. "Where were you? I thought we were meeting outside the station?"

"I know, Sev, but my parents wanted to see me off. I'm sorry."

So _that _was this "Sev" person. If she was honest, Lucy really didn't like the look of him. He had greasy, black hair, a long hooked nose, and cold, grey eyes.

"That's..." he stopped, seemingly noticing Lucy for the first time, "Who's that?" he demanded rudely, his eyes cold as he looked at Lucy.

"Lucy Chalke," she said before Lily could. "And I am actually here, you know?" She didn't appreciate being spoken about like she was a bit of dirt under his shoe. Two boys came in and sat in the same compartment, one of which was Sirius, the other was the boy with glasses and black hair. They were not paying attention to them, apart from Sirius, who winked slightly at Lucy, causing her to smile. They talked amongst themselves, Lucy didn't really mind, their conversation didn't really interest her.

"Anyway," 'Sev', said, turning back to Lily, "This is it! We're going to Hogwarts!"

Lily nodded, smiling.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," he said. Lucy snorted slightly – Lily, a Slytherin? She had only just met her, but she definitely wasn't Slytherin material. Joe had told their parents all about them at dinner times – Slytherins were most definitely not nice people.

"Slytherin?" asked the boy with the glasses, the one she'd seen on the platform. "I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he said to Sirius, who was sitting opposite him, on the same side as Lucy.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin." He said.

"Blimey," said the other boy, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned that cheeky grin again. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

He lifted an invisible sword, which made Lucy giggle, "_Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! _Like my dad."

Sev made a noise which showed exactly what _he _thought about that. Lucy was liking this boy less and less.

"Got a problem with that?" demanded the boy.

"No," sneered Sev, "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy – "

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius, which made James roar with laughed. Lucy just chuckled, and Lily looked offended.

"Come on Severus, let's find another compartment. Coming Lucy?"

James and Sirius imitated her voice, and Lucy shrugged and stood to follow them.

_Later_

"Chalke, Lucy," Lucy's heart was beating loudly in her chest, and she walked up to the stool, her hands shaking, and she felt terrified. The last thing she saw before she put the old hat over her head was a sea of bored and some nervous students watching her. And then her eyes were covered by the hat.

_Aah, another Chalke. _The hat's voice appeared in her head, and she jumped, not expecting it to talk _in her head! _The hat seemed to chuckle. _Not like your brother, I see...yes, yes, he was hard to choose. He would have done well in Slytherin, however, they would never accept a muggle born there...you have the brains for Ravenclaw...not Hufflepuff, that won't do...Hmm, difficult. I see a lot of bravery there – you would do well in Gryffindor...Well then...better make a choice..._GRYFFINDOR!

Lucy smiled shakily, pulled the hat off, dumped it unceremoniously onto the stool, and practically skipped to the Gryffindor table. She sat down, and Sirius grinned at her, mouthing _Congrats, _which she smiled back to. She grinned with happiness as Lily was sorted into Gryffindor, and was silently thankfully that Severus was _not_ sorted into their house. Over the train journey, she had discovered that she _really_ disliked that boy. She also discovered that the messy haired, bespectacled boy was called James Potter, and he was quickly sorted into his house of choice, Gryffindor.

After the headmaster – a man named Professor Dumbledore who looked very old and wise, had given a short speech, loads of food appeared on the table. Lucy ladled some lasagne on, feeling very happy indeed. It was only her first night here, and she really felt like she belonged.

"I'm pure blood," she heard a girl called Alice saying. "Although, I think my great grandmother was a squib, but I never met her...she felt out with my mum when she got married."

"I'm half blood," said a girl called Kate, "My mum's a muggleborn, but my dad's pureblood."

"I'm a muggleborn," Lily put in quietly.

"Me too," said Lucy, "But my brother is also magical. He's in Ravenclaw."

A third year sitting near them turned to them, and said, "What's his name?"

"Joe Chalke..." she said awkwardly.

"Oh," said the third year, looking like she wanted to get away from her now, "Uh, no offence, but he's a bit of an idiot."

"I know..." murmured Lucy quietly.

"What are the lessons gonna be like?" Lily asked the third year, changing the subject tactfully. Lucy smiled at her, thankful for that.

A week later, Lucy was staring doubtfully at the broom that was refusing to move.

"Up!" she exclaimed, feeling extremely frustrated. "Up!" The broom wouldn't budge. She turned to Lily, "Why can't I just pick it up?" Lily nodded, she wasn't having any luck with it either.

"Up!" she tried again. She groaned in annoyance, and kicked the broom, frustrated.

"That won't convince it to move for you," said Sirius teasingly from beside her. Lucy was annoyed to see that he was holding his broom. Then again, she decided, he'd probably practised on a broom before now. He was pure blood after all.

"Oh, shut up," replied Lucy moodily. "Up," she said again, silently threatening the broom. To her surprise, the broom leapt into her hand. She was so surprised, in fact, that she immediately dropped the broom again, which had Sirius in fits of laughter.

"Idiot," she muttered, picking it up this time.

"Right," said Madam Hooch, the young Quidditch teacher, "Mount your brooms,"

"What is it, a horse?" she muttered, suddenly in a foul mood.

Madam Hooch told them to kick off on the ground, hover, and then come back down. Lucy kicked off, but as soon as she was in the air, she slipped off the broom and landed in the mud on her backside. Her cheeks turned bright red, and her eyes filled with tears as she realised all the Slytherins were laughing at her. The Gryffindors, being the loyal beings they were, didn't laugh, at least, they tried not to. Lily helped Lucy up, glaring at the Slytherins.

Madam Hooch was helping someone else who had hurt their leg to the Hospital Wing, and had told them not to go into the air or they would be expelled.

"Typical," sneered an unpleasant boy named Mulciber. He walked towards Lucy, and looked down on her, "Just like a little Mudblood to not even be able to fly a broom,"

The result was almost catastrophic. A couple of girls gasped, James snarled "How dare you?" and Lucy's eyes filled with tears. Again. She didn't know what Mudblood meant, but she was clever enough to work out that it wasn't nice. She had never done anything to him, why was he being mean to her?

It was Sirius' reaction that was the kindest, however.

"Leave her alone, you bleedin' disgrace," he hissed at the boy, and then punched him in the face so hard that he fell down. "You don't even deserve to talk to her!"

"Black!" yelled Madam Hooch, who was coming back from the castle, "Detention! How dare you! The nerve – "

"But – "

"No but's! Never such disgraceful behaviour have I seen in all my years here!  
"Madam Hooch – " tried James.

"No!" she exclaimed. "That's enough!"

"Madam Hooch," said Remus Lupin – a kind, tired-looking boy, who Lucy really liked. He was also best friends with James and Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew as well, "Mulciber called Lucy a mudblood."

"What?" she yelled, "Disgraceful! Never...detention for a week! And ten points from Slytherin!" She paused, "Class dismissed," Mulciber started to get up from the floor, "NOT YOU!" she yelled in his direction, "You and I are going to see Professor Slughorn, mister. You need your mouth washed out with soap, you do."

Lucy and Lily walked away from the area with the boys, and Lucy tried to stop herself from crying. Sirius pulled her into a hug, and whispered "It's okay. He's just an idiot; don't pay attention to what he says." Lucy wasn't even sure _why_ she was so upset. She didn't even know what a mudblood was. But it was the way Mulciber had said it, she knew that it definitely was not a kind thing to say.

"What does Mudblood mean?" Lily asked Remus.

He shook his head sadly, "It's a horrible term for somebody with muggle parents. It means dirty blood. It's a horrible thing to say."

"Completely stupid as well," James put in, "It's not like by being pure blood you're any cleverer than when you're a muggle born."

"Thank you," Lucy whispered to Sirius later, "For standing up for me. You didn't need to do it."

He smiled, "It was no problem. You didn't deserve to be called that. Nobody does."

And from that moment on, Lucy Chalke and Sirius Black became fast friends.

_There we have it! My first chapter =D I'm trying to have weekly updates, and I'm hoping chapters aren't going to be too short. I don't know how long this is, so if it's not long enough, I'll try and be longer for next chapter. As I said before, everything's already planned out, so I'll just, you know...add more words. Lol, I know the ending! Anyway, if you read, pleeease review =D And i hope you enjoyed it!_


	3. Chapter 2  Second and Third Year

_I still don't own Harry Potter..._

Chapter 2 – Second Year

"Lucy, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me?" Lucy looked up, feeling quite surprised, to meet the eyes of the Ravenclaw second year, Richie Briggs.

"Okay," she said with a smile.

He nodded, "Cool," he said, and walked away to his friends, who all high fived him.

Lily, who was next to her grinned at her and said, "That's awesome...he's cute."

"Yeah," said Lucy, smiling happily to herself. Then she and Lily went back to their Charms homework.

(_A/N – just so you don't all protest at the lack of feeling here. She's twelve. I remember all the girls that went out with guys when we were twelve. They didn't even hold hands. Or talk. Or do anything together really...)_

A few hours later, Lucy was sitting in the great hall at dinner with Sirius, James, and Lily. She wasn't really listening to what James and Lily were saying – but she was pretty sure they were fighting. They fought a lot. Sirius said that James liked her, but Lucy didn't think so. She knew James quite well now, and she didn't think that he would act that way if he really liked someone.

"D'you think they'll ever stop arguing?" Lucy asked Sirius. He shrugged.  
"Maybe by seventh year," he said. They both laughed, thinking about how far away seventh year was. They had ages of time before _that_. Lucy did not want to go into seventh year...it looked quite scary. And then she would have to leave Hogwarts, and she would hate that.

"What are they talking about now?" she asked him.

He sighed, "Oh, nothing really. You know how James is in the Quidditch team?"

She nodded, "Yeah, since the start of the year. How could I _not_ know?"

Sirius laughed, "Well Lily just said that she thought maybe he should be concentrating more on his studies than Quidditch. Which James didn't really appreciate."

Lucy shrugged. "They've had worse arguments..."

"Yeah, like that one when James an' me did that prank on Snivellus, and she went totally mental."

Lucy closed her eyes, "Man, that was awful. She wouldn't shut up about it for _weeks._" She raised her voice so that she was doing a really bad imitation of Lily, "And poor Sev doesn't _need_ any more on his plate! _How_ could the just turn his hair green like that? It's not like he's _that _bad a person! And the glittery French moustache was just going _too far! _Not to mention – "

"Little sister!" called a voice from behind them cutting Lucy off. Lucy groaned quietly, and Sirius stopped laughing and rolled his eyes beside her. She spun around, lifting her legs over the bench as she went.

"What do you want, Joe?" she asked loftily. Their relationship had not gotten any better since coming to Hogwarts, in fact if anything, over the last year and a half it had only gotten worse.

"Is it so bad to want to come and see my little sister?" he demanded.

"When you are you, and I am the little sister, yes it is. What do you want?"

"Touchy," he muttered. Then he said in a louder voice, "I need to talk to you!"

"Okay," Lucy said, folding her arms. She could see Sirius glaring at him slightly.

"In _private," _he hissed, his eyes narrowing.

"Anything you want to say to me, you can say to me here, Joe," she told him.

He hissed (why was he not in Slytherin?) and grabbed her arm. "Ouch!" she exclaimed as he pulled her out of the Great Hall. "Get off me!" she said viciously, pulling her arm from his grasp once he had all but dragged her into an empty corridor. "What the heck are you doing Joe?" she demanded.

"I said I wanted to talk to you." He told her.

"Right, and dragging me out the Great Hall was the way to do that?"

"Well, you weren't exactly going to come if I just _asked _you."

"You're an idiot." She muttered. "What do you want to talk to me about so we can hurry up and get this over with?"

"Richie Briggs." He said, his voice dark.

Lucy sighed, "What about him?"

"I don't want you dating him."

Her anger flared slightly. She hated it when her brother got like this – protective. It was so unlike him to even care for her in the slightest. Was this something that was engrained into the mind of every brother? If their little sister was dating someone then they had to stop it? "Well, that's sad for you." She said, turning around to walk away. Her parents had raised her to walk away from a fight, so that was what she was trying to do. He grabbed her arm again. It hurt.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, "_Stop_ doing that!"

"Just listen to me, will you?" he said. It was more of a demand than a question.

She sighed.

"I don't want you dating him." He said.

"Why not?" she asked, feeling increasingly frustrated.

He sighed, "You're not old enough," he said, but she knew that that wasn't his real reason for this. She did know her older brother quite well, even if they didn't get on well.

"Now tell me the real reason."

He growled slightly, "Well...he's a _mudblood!"_ he whispered the word. "OW!" he yelled, as Lucy smacked his arm, surprisingly hard for a twelve year old. "What the heck was that for?"

"So are you, you filthy hypocrite!" she said angrily to him.

"Shut _up!"_ he hissed, his voice dangerous. She knew he was really angry now – she had heard this voice a few times during her childhood.

"Why?" she asked him, "Ashamed of your parentage?"

He shrugged, "Let's just say that sometimes I think that maybe there's more to life than you Gryffindor idiots think."

She looked at him disbelievingly. "I don't even know who you are anymore," she said quietly. "This was not about Richie, was it? You just don't like who you are?"

He didn't say anything.

"Imagine what our parents would say!" she said, "If they knew that you had practically disowned them, because you agree with all this pureblood _crap_."

"It's not crap." He said.

"Just get out of my sight," she said, angry again.

That night, Lucy lay in bed, thinking about what had just happened. She had always known that Joe was a bit of an idiot, and he had always been kind of obnoxious, but she never though he actually agreed with Slytherin morals. He was one of those people they would be targeting, after all. It didn't make sense.

She thought that if he wasn't a muggleborn, he probably would have been sorted into Slytherin.

_Later..._

Lucy looked up as Sirius plonked himself down next to her.

"Watcha reading?" he asked, trying to see the cover.

She lifted it up so he could see. "_Quidditch Through the Ages: Edition One – _I thought you didn't like Quidditch?"

She smiled and shrugged, "James found out that I didn't and practically disowned me on the spot. So I thought I'd try and see what it was all about so I wasn't murdered in my sleep or something..."

He laughed, "And what do you think so far?"

"I dunno...I mean, there are some really long games in there and stuff...which I suppose is quite amusing. It still seems really boring..."

"Well at least you'll be able to have an educated conversation with him now," he said.

She nodded, "I suppose."

"So what was all that with your brother the other day? You looked really annoyed when you came back..."

She shrugged, "You know what Joe's like." He nodded, she had ranted to him about Joe so many times, and he, in turn, had ranted about his family to her. "He decided that he didn't like me and Richie Briggs going out becau-"

"Wait, wait, wait, rewind a minute," he interrupted. "You and Richie Briggs?"

"Oh, yeah, didn't I tell you?" she said, her eyebrows rising slightly as she tried to remember. He shook his head. "Oh, sorry. He asked me out the other day, and I said yes."

Sirius looked shocked. "Oh right...why?"

Lucy shrugged, "He's cute, and he's nice...why not?"

"Have you ever even talked to him before?"

"Yeah, I sit next to him in Potions."

"I don't like it..."

"Not you too!" she exclaimed, sitting up in exasperation.

"Sorry," he said. "I just don't like the idea of you dating..."

"Hypocrite." She muttered, leaning back again. He just chuckled.

"Anyway, what were you saying?" he asked.

"Well, he didn't seem to like the fact that we were going out, and I asked him why...turns out it's because he's muggleborn."

Sirius looked shocked. "But Joe's – "  
"I know, I told him that. He went a bit mental, I mean, he's pretty much disowned our parents. Not to their knowledge though, but I mean...what the heck?"

"That's so weird." He said, looking thoroughly confused.

"I really hope they never have to find out," she murmured to him, "It would break their hearts."

Sirius put an arm round her comfortingly, and she smiled, going back to reading _Quidditch Through the Ages._

A week later, Richie tried to kiss Lucy. And they broke up. Lucy said they were going too fast, and that she had decided that she did not want a boyfriend right now anyway. Richie agreed that it wasn't working out, and the two decided to just be friends.

Third Year

"POTTER!"

The yell rang through the Gryffindor common room, and James, Sirius, Remus and Lucy groaned.

"James, what have you done now?" asked Lucy.

"Nothing!" he exclaimed.

Lily came to stand in front of James, her face red and her hands on her hips, her expression furious.

"Yes, my precious lily flower?" he said looking up innocently.

"Care to explain why I just found Snape locked in a broom cupboard?" she demanded. James snickered, and Lucy groaned softly. Again. "Don't you dare laugh, Potter! It's not _funny!"_

"I find it quite amusing." He stated.

"Well you're an idiot." She said. "It's not funny, and you know it. He could have _starved _in there!"

"Nah, he would have worked out how to get out eventually. He's not _that_ stupid."

"Potter, you are the most arrogant, idiotic, horrible, nasty..."

Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lucy all decided to leave at this point. They climbed out of the portrait hole, Lily's threats and insults sounding behind them.

"Those two are ridiculous." muttered Sirius, "I can't believe he thinks he has a chance with her."

Lucy shrugged, "I think does." She said.

"Nah, she hates him too much."

"Yeah, she thinks she does...maybe she doesn't actually hate him."

"You willing to bet on that?" Sirius said cheekily.

"Go for it." She said, "I bet you five galleons that they'll get together by the end of seventh year."

"You are so on!" he said, laughing as they shook hands.

Lucy sighed, "Lily's gonna be so offended if she finds out about this!"

Sirius just laughed.

That night, Lucy and Lily were sitting in the dorm, both cross legged on Lily's bed, talking about everything under the sun. At that point in time, however, Lily was ranting about James.

"Lily, I don't understand..." Lucy said, "Why...why d'you like Snape so much? He's...I dunno, the way he acts...it's not nice."

Lily shrugged. "I dunno. He was always nice to me. I guess...I guess he never showed me the side of him that isn't the nicest."

"D'you understand why James acts the way he does then?" she asked the other girl.

"Because Snape doesn't act nice?" said Lily. Then she shook her head, "It's not acceptable. Half the time it isn't even provoked. They just do it...because they think it's fun."

Lucy shrugged. She knew why Sirius did it, anyway...he had told her. To Sirius, Snape was a link to the world that he was forced to belong to outside of Hogwarts. And he was an easy target..."Not necessarily." She said, "They might have other reasons."

Lily shook her head again, "Whatever the reason, it's not fair to Sev. He's a good guy...they just hate him because he's a Slytherin and they started off on the wrong foot."

"Don't you think that maybe the same thing happened with you and James...?" said Lucy softly, not wanting to provoke her fiery tempered friend. But it was true. "James is a good guy...you just hate him because he doesn't like Snape, and you two started off on the wrong foot."

"I'm going to bed," Lily said abruptly, heading towards the bathroom. The other girl sighed and shook her head, now alone in the room. Lily was so stubborn sometimes, and she refused to accept that James was a good guy, even though sometimes he did not act like it.

Just like Snape...

Lucy decided that she was going to go for a walk outside to clear her thoughts. She shouted this to Lily, who just grunted. Kate, Alice, and Mary, their room-mates were all in the common room doing last minute homework, even though it was going on eleven at night.

She sneaked quietly out the castle, only just avoiding a run in with Mrs Norris, and slipping out the unlocked doors. She wandered aimlessly over the grounds, thinking about Snape, Lily, James, and Sirius.

She would never, _ever_ tell anyone, but since the end of last year she had had a little bit of a crush on Sirius. It was a total secret though – people would just think it was sad and pathetic. After all, he was already her best friend, and people were jealous enough of that, they would think it was stupid that she fancied him too. So she had decided a long time ago to just ignore it, and get on with life.

She wondered suddenly how she had gotten onto thinking about Sirius. She groaned, and sat down, leaning against a tree. Looking around herself she realised that she was in the Forbidden Forest. She did not have the energy to care though, as she felt rather tired. She leaned back against the tree and felt her eyelids slide shut...

Only to snap open again when she heard a howl. Her hand covered her mouth as she realised how close it sounded.

"Werewolf..." she murmured to herself, glancing up through the branches to see the full moon shining down at her. "Oh no..."

She got to her feet slowly, trying to be as quiet as she could.

She screamed as she heard a growl only about ten metres away. She couldn't see anything, it was too dark, but she backed away. She tripped over something on the ground, and squeaked as she hit it. She had never been so scared in her life. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and she was shaking uncontrollably.

Just as the wolf lunged at her, a shape came and attacked it, pushing it away from her. Then a black shape ran up to help the other fend off the wolf. She realised quickly that the first shape was a stag, and the second was a dog. They all disappeared from sight, and she was alone. She still heard growls, and she heard the werewolf howling, but she could tell they were no longer anywhere near her.

Then the black shape of the dog came running towards her. Shocked, she watched as it transformed from a shaggy black dog into her best friend, Sirius Black.

"Lucy," he muttered, grabbing her arm, dragging her to her feet and pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Sirius," she gasped. "You're a – what the – Oh my goodness..." she was close to hyperventilating, but Sirius shook his head.

"I'll explain everything tomorrow, but you need to get out of here."

"What about..."

"I'll be fine," he said, "_Go!"_

She didn't need to be told twice, and she ran back to the castle. When she turned around, she saw that Sirius had disappeared amongst the trees, probably as a big black dog.

She hoped that he would be safe...

_Most of this chapter was sort of setting the scene, relationship building and whatnot, so I hope it wasn't too boring. I wanted to show you about Lucy and Joe's relationship, James and Lily's and Sirius and Lucy's...all in one chapter, which was funzies :L So I hope it wasn't too bad. Thank you to the three of you who reviewed, you all made my day! Please review if you read this =)_

_Until next time =) _


	4. Chapter 3  Fourth Year

_I don't own Harry Potter...=(_

Chapter 3 – Fourth Year

When Lucy realised she was on her own, she decided that she might as well skip down the corridor. She was in a good mood, and skipping was more fun than walking. Her bag slipped off her shoulder so that she was holding it in her hand and swinging it back and forth as she skipped, laughing slightly manically.

This was fun.

"Lucy!" Lucy screeched as she tried to stop, but she was too late, and she smacked straight into the form of Remus Lupin, knocking them both to the ground.

"Ow..." she groaned, rolling off Remus who seemed slightly shocked. "Sorry, Remus..."

"It's alright, I suppose," he said, then sat up, shaking his head. "Any reason why you were skipping down the corridor at forty miles an hour?"

She blushed, sitting up, and trying to retrieve everything that had fallen out of her bag. "Was happy..."

Remus chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Well, well, well..." sneered a voice, causing both Remus and Lucy to jump. "What do we have here?"

"Well, Padfoot, I'd say that these two were up to no good."

Looking up, the two saw Sirius, James and Peter, all of which were standing with their arms folded.

"Typical," muttered Lucy, "When you find one Marauder, you can be certain the others won't be far behind..."

Sirius chuckled, and reached out a hand to help Lucy up. "Skipping down a corridor, my dear? Really?"

"Shu'up." She snapped, "There goes my good mood," But she was smiling.

"Aw, don't be sad," he said, turning to face her, as she attempted to look mad. He put his fingers at the tips of her lips and tried to push them into a smile. "Come on, little Lucy!"

"Little Lucy?" she asked, incredulously.

"Yeah. Sounds good doesn't it?"

"Not really...I'm not _that_ small!" she protested.

"And it uses...al...aloo..."

"Alliteration, Padfoot," came the voice of Remus from behind.

"Alliteration!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

"But I'm not small!" Lucy exclaimed.

"...Denial!" he sang.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, shut up."

"Nope!" he said, "Anyway, what've you got next?"

"Um...Ancient Runes." She said, rolling her eyes. "You?"

"Em..." he took out his timetable and then swore.

"Watch your language,"

"Yes mum." He said, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, I have Muggle Studies, and it's on the opposite end of the castle...I'll see you losers later!"

And he sprinted away.

"He doesn't have Muggle Studies..." James murmured to himself. "He didn't even _take _Muggle Studies."

"He must have my timetable," said Remus, rolling his eyes.

James sighed. "We better go get him, or he'll miss Ancient Runes."

Lucy laughed, "I knew he had that class with me."

Both boys chuckled appreciatively, and left quickly with a: "See ya, Lucy."

Lucy laughed to herself, and headed off in the opposite direction.

Lucy did _not _like Ancient Runes. It was like French, but much, _much_ harder. French was the language she was forced to try and learn at her old primary school, the one she went to before finding out she was a witch. She could still only remember a few things, like _Bonjour, Je m'appelle Lucy, _and_ Je suis onze ans. _She had learnt the last one when she was still in primary, and couldn't remember any number higher than that. Her French accent was horrible as well, and she had always hated French with a passion in primary. Why she took Ancient Runes was beyond her.

"Hey, Mudblood." She was jolted out of her thoughts, but didn't turn around. If there was one thing she hated, it was that word, and she refused to listen to someone addressing her by that. If they couldn't refer to her with her name, then she would not dignify that person with a response.

"Mudblood." She heard running footsteps, and wanting to run away as fast as she could, but she didn't. She was feeling quite angry. That word was so pathetic, and it was just used to feel filthy pure-blooded idiots feel better about themselves. "Mudblood!" She barely had time to recognise the voice as Mulciber's, before she felt the back of her robes being pulled and she was thrown against the wall, her bag falling to the ground, she winced as she heard an ink bottle cracking, and she could see papers falling out.

"Mudblood," he said, in the stereotypical deep "idiot" voice. "You will respond to me when I talk to you."

"Oh," she said innocently, "I didn't realise you were talking to me."

There was a cackle from behind him, and Bellatrix Black came into view. "Ooh. Chalke knows how to play."

She really did not know how she could possibly be related to Sirius. They were nothing alike.

"What are you gonna do to her, Mulciber?" asked another voice she recognised as Regulus', Sirius' idiot little brother. His voice was cold, and Lucy tried to look at him, in a desperate way to get a hint of recognition from him. He was her best friend's brother, after all...even if he was a bit of an idiot...well, she thought that would count for _something. _

Apparently not.

"Oh, I don't know..." Mulciber responded. Lucy slowly pulled out her wand, feeling slightly desperate, but Bellatrix Black noticed and shouted: "_Expelliarmus!" _

She watched helplessly as her wand fell to the floor a few metres away. Nobody moved to retrieve it. "Now, little mudblood," said Bellatrix, taking control over Mulciber, who was still holding Lucy against the wall. Her heart was bursting in her chest, her hands were shaking and her face was pale white. Bellatrix saw this and laughed. "What are we going to do with you?"

"Leave me alone?" she suggested pitifully.

Bellatrix laughed uproariously. "And they call you a Gryffindor. Why, you're not brave in the slightest, are you Little Lucy?" She spat the nickname that Sirius had just adopted for her...but when Sirius had said it, Lucy had quite liked it...but when Bellatrix said it, she loathed it. "_Petrificus Totalus."_

She felt her body go completely rigid, and Mulciber let go of her, so that she fell to the floor, hitting her head of the ground when she got there. From her line of vision, she could see Bellatrix coming over to her. She sneered down at her, and suddenly, without any warning, stamped _hard_ on Lucy's wrist. Pain exploded in it, and Lucy felt tears prick in her eyes. But she didn't want to cry in front of these bullies...she didn't want them to know what it felt like to win.

The Slytherins were all laughing, including Regulus. It was unfair; there were three of them, and only one of her. In what universe was she actually going to be able to get out of this on her own?

She then heard a voice, and almost smiled in relief, if she could have. "Well, well, well, who are you bothering now, little brother...plus cronies?"

She couldn't see what was happening, but she heard someone yell, and then footsteps running away.

"Lucy?" Sirius asked, and she felt him touch her arm (not the injured one, thankfully). "Oh," he said, and muttered the counter curse. When she could move again, he pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her, and, ashamed, she started crying into his chest. She was crying not only because her wrist hurt, but because of the Slytherins, the fact they bullied her for something she had absolutely no control over, and the fact that they attacked her when she had no chance of winning.

Sirius stroked her hair, and then asked in a soft voice that was obviously concealing anger, "Did they hurt you?"

Lucy nodded. "My wrist," she said, trying to hold it up, but squeaking in pain as she did so. He helped her to her feet.

"I'll take you to the Hospital Wing," he told her. He then turned to look at her, and wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

"It's okay, Lucy." He said, "It's okay."

She gritted her teeth, "I should've fought back. Properly. I could've done _so much more._ It's not like they didn't deserve it, is it? Why didn't I fight back, Sirius?" she asked, looking up at him with her big green and brown eyes, her eyelashes still wet from crying. He put his arms around her, careful not to hurt her wrist, and hugged her tight.

"It's because you're a good person." He said into her hair. "You're a good person who always thinks of others before yourself."

Lucy laughed slightly through her tears, "Right. Yeah. Sure. Okay."

Sirius laughed with her. He released her from the hug and said, "I'll get your stuff."

She nodded, holding her arm carefully, and wincing when she moved it the wrong way. Sirius repaired the ink bottles, cleaned up all the spilled ink, collected all the pieces of parchment which were lying haphazardly on the floor, and put everything back in the bag. He then picked the satchel up and swung it over his shoulder, got to his feet, and put his hand on the small of his best friend's back, guiding her to the Hospital wing, a protective look shining in his eyes.

When they got there, Madam Pomfrey was attending to a sixth year named Frank Longbottom, whose face appeared to be changing colour rapidly. It went from blue, to red, to purple, to orange, to green and so on.

Sirius led Lucy to the bed next to Frank's and sat her down on the smooth bed-sheets.

"Hey Sirius, Lucy." Said Frank, his voice slightly doleful. "What's happened to you?" he asked, his voice changing to concerned, seeing Lucy's tear-stained, mascara smeared face, and the protective hand over her sore wrist.

"Slytherins," hissed Sirius, his voice dangerous. There was no other explanation needed, and Frank's face darkened – he looked slightly angry. He then said something that Lucy would not have dared say in front of her mother. She reddened slightly, though felt a little happy that people were concerned about her. It made her feel a little special.

"It doesn't matter," she said, ignoring the two boy's expressions when she said this. "Anyway, what happened to you, Frank?"

His doleful expression returned, and she felt slightly bad. "Got hit by the wrong end of a spell in Charms." He said, his face currently neon pink. "Pomfrey says if I drink this potion every ten minutes for an hour, then it will come away. She's just getting it."

"Speak of the devil..." murmured Sirius, as Madam Pomfrey came bustling back in, the flask of horrible looking brown coloured potion in hand.

"Uch," Frank said in disgust as he took a gulp of it. Madam Pomfrey just rolled her eyes.

"Every ten minutes, Mr Longbottom, okay?" she said, more of a demand than a question. He just nodded, his face still screwed up.

She then turned to Lucy and Sirius, who had sat down beside his friend. "Now," she said, "What have you two been up to _now?_"

Lucy blushed, as Sirius laughed good naturedly. They had both been in there a number of times – though, it was mainly Sirius, James, Remus or occasionally Peter that was injured. On the off chance it was Lucy, it was normally because she had gotten caught up in one of their pranks by accident.

"Lucy hurt her arm," Sirius supplied, and Pomfrey took the wrist in question, gently. She probed it a little, and Lucy winced. Madam Pomfrey nodded and said, "Yes, it's definitely broken. May I ask what happened?"

"I, uh, I fell." She said unconvincingly. She saw Sirius look at her oddly, but he didn't say anything.

"Right," she said, clearly not believing her, but did not ask any more questions. She muttered a quick spell, and her arm felt much better, as good as new. She grinned. "Thank you so much!"

"That's quite all right, dear." Said Madam, Pomfrey fondly. Lucy was always so polite. She scribbled something on a bit of paper, and handed it to her. "A note for your teacher. It will be the next lesson by now."

They both nodded, and went out the Hospital Wing, calling their thanks, and saying goodbye to Frank.

"Why didn't you tell her?" asked Sirius on the way to Transfiguration.

Lucy shrugged, "I dunno. With people like them, if they found out I told on them, they'd probably just come back, and it would be even worse."

"We'd look after you," Sirius said softly.

"I know you would," she replied gently. "But you can't be with me all the time."

He was going to answer, but she shook her head as they reached the classroom. They entered, Lucy feeling highly aware, again, of her tear stained cheeks, and clutched the note in her hand. Sirius took her to the front of the classroom, and she handed McGonagall the note. She raised her eyebrows, but nodded, and motioned for them to go to their seats. Lucy had her head down, she was highly aware that everyone was watching her questioningly. She sat in her seat next to James, and in front of Lily and Mary, pulling out her books and parchment, her face red, as Sirius sat next to Remus, who whispered something to him. Everyone stopped staring soon, and carried on chatting and practising the spell they were doing.

"What happened?" James muttered quietly to her, quickly showing her the spell they were trying to do. "You've been crying." He stated. "Did you get in a fight with Sirius? I swear, if he did anything to you, I know he's my best friend, but I will ki – "

"James, stop." Lucy said, a slight smile on her face.

He stopped mid sentence.

"Slytherins attacked me in the corridor. " Outrage filled James' face, "But Sirius found me, scared them away and took me to the Hospital Wing."

James looked unbelievably angry, "They hurt you?" he demanded.

She nodded slightly, "But I'm fine. Seriously. Look!" she flapped her wrist around slightly desperately in his face, "Look! Good as new!"

"Miss Chalke, as wonderful as it is that your wrist was healed, would you please restrain from waving it around in my class, please?" said McGonagall, effectively putting an end to their conversation.

_Good evening mes amies =) I'm sorry it's been a little while since i've updated, but my exams start next Thursday, so i have been bogged down with work...and have only been writing it in my spare time. Speaking of which, I probably won't be updating this for the next couple of weeks for the same reason, but once they're over (which is a couple of days after valentines) i'll get back to writing...=D _

_I hope you liked this chapter! It didn't go quite as I planned – I had meant to have stuff from fifth year in as well, but I realised that I'd written about enough for this to be a chapter, and I really wanted to get something up. _

_So i hope you liked it =) I wanted to do some relationship building...to show you how good friends Lucy is with a few people...and how nice Sirius is =') I also brought in frank just for funzies...I think he seems nice! Anyhoo, thanks for reading! And please review!_

_Oh, and also. I realised, i called the prologue the prequel...yes I am an idiot. So sorry about that! I'll change the chapter title when i upload this :L _


	5. Chapter 4  Fifth Year

_I'm gonna do one of these crazy disclaimers that I've seen a few people do recently..._

_Do I have blond hair? No. Am I British? Yes. More specifically, am I English? Well, technically half English. But not really. Do I have more money than the Queen (as is rumoured)? No. Unless the Queen has suddenly lost a lot of money. But am I JK Rowling? Narp. I clearly do not own Harry Potter then...making no money from this...so on and so forth =) _

Fifth Year

Lucy was walking around the Black Lake with Sirius. The Lake was beautiful, the soft light reflecting on the surface. It was slightly cold though, and Lucy shivered.

"Are you cold?" he murmured. She nodded, and he immediately pulled off his jumper and gave it to her. She smiled up at him, and pulled it on. It was huge on her.

They carried on walking. Softly, naturally, he took her hand. They fitted perfectly together, like they were made for each other. Lucy had never felt as content as she did now. He stopped.

"Sirius," she said, quietly.

"Shh..." he put a finger to her lips, and then he leaned down...closer...closer until –

"HAPPY CHRISTMAS!"

"AAH!" Lucy screamed, as she fell out of the bed with an "oof," her Christmas presents falling to the floor as her quilt pulled them off. She groaned as she felt the cold, hard floor under her back, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She looked up, annoyed, into the grinning face of the one and only Sirius Black.

"How on earth did you...wait a minute, oh my word, what the heck are you doing in the girl's dorms!" she demanded, noticing the other girls in the dorm where looking equally shocked. Lily's head was poking out of her quilt, her hair a mess, gazing confusedly at the scene before her. Mary and Kate had both started opening their presents, and Alice had gone back to sleep already.

"I have my ways," he said mysteriously. She snorted, and Sirius laughed. Lily seemed to be regaining her sense of normality, as she screeched: "Black!"

She rolled out her bed, and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. She looked quite crazy, her hair wild and untamed around her head, her green eyes alight. Anyone who valued their life would back down. "Get the heck out of here!" she said.

He nodded, holding up his hands, "Okay, okay!" he then turned to Lucy, "Meet us in the common room when you're finished opening your presents!" he said, to which she nodded.

Lucy groaned, and untangled herself from her sheets. Then she caught sight of one of her presents. "It's Christmas!" she exclaimed, excited suddenly. Lily laughed, and went to her presents.

From Lily, she got a necklace with a beautiful silver dog on it. She didn't think Lily quite understood the significance of it – she only knew that dogs were her favourite animal. From her brother she got a pretty purple scarf (although the two didn't really get along, their parents insisted they gave each other presents) and from her parents she got some nice shower stuff, pyjamas, nice clothes and various other things.

"Thank you Lily!" She exclaimed, hugging her friend. "It's gorgeous," she put it on, and it looked great.

"You too!" said Lily grinning at the book she had wanted and the beautiful notebook. Lucy and Lily got changed and went down to the common room to meet the boys. (This was the one day that Lily was forced to be civil to James.)

"Happy Christmas!" The boys chorused as one. Lucy grinned and hugged each of them in turn, while Lily nodded. Sirius and James looked at each other, an evil glint in their eyes, and then both jumped on Lily, attempting to hug her. Eventually she threw them off her, and went to see Kate, Mary and Alice instead, muttering about idiotic boys. Lucy hit both boys in turn, rolling her eyes at them.

The boys then presented her with a rectangular, colourfully wrapped parcel, as she handed her presents to them.

"We got you one together, because we figured then it would be more special," said James with a smile. Lucy had to laugh at the way they all looked rather proud of themselves.

"Thanks guys!" she said happily.

"You haven't opened it yet!" Peter exclaimed incredulously. She laughed, and ripped the paper off the present.

It was a beautiful book. The cover of it was a light purple, with darker purple swirls over it. In the middle was a picture of Lucy, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter that was taken only a few weeks before. They were all outside, and they were all laughing at something Sirius had said, though Lucy was rolling her eyes slightly. When she opened it, there was an array of pictures of the five of them throughout Hogwarts, and then one of her and Lily, and her and her dorm, and so on. It was awesome!  
She squeaked slightly, threw her arms around the four of them and hugged them excitedly.

"Thank you so much!"

"No problem, doll," said Sirius lazily. She looked at him, an odd expression on her face.

"Doll?" she asked. He shrugged.

Christmas was fun, Lucy deduced. All of them had stayed home for it because their parents were off doing various things, and everyone had decided to stay in. Kate, Mary and Alice had all also decided to stay just for the fun of it, as none of them had experienced a Christmas at Hogwarts.

The only thing particular to report from that day was that Lucy caught Sirius eyeing up a Ravenclaw girl. She shook it off as nothing...but she had this nagging feeling at the back of her mind that he liked her. It scared her, because as much as she tried to ignore it, she still really liked Sirius.

Meanwhile...

Joe sat in his dorm staring at the mark on his arm.

And so it was done.

It was strange, he thought, that he had managed to fool the Dark Lord into believing he was a pure blood. But then, he was not in Ravenclaw for nothing, he decided. He thought of his sister, and his face twisted into a sneer. She was such a mudblood...a stereotypical mudblood, he decided. He, he was nothing like her. He did not want to be like she was – he did not want to be a mudblood. In fact, he would not have been surprised if he was secretly pureblood.

It did not matter, however, as Voldemort had been fooled. Many people in Hogwarts did not even know of his parentage...he had never really told anyone.

And so, it was on that day, the twenty fifth of December, that Joe Chalke became a Death Eater. He smiled to himself, almost laughing at the name _Chalke. _No, he would no longer be known by that name. He was leaving school soon – and the Dark Lord and the rest of his followers would know him as Earsdon. Joe Earsdon.

Satisfied, he drew his sleeve back over the dark, swirling mark on his arm. He knew, at that moment, that this was what he was born to do.

Back to Lucy...

A few weeks later, her suspicions were most definitely confirmed when Sirius sat with the girl at lunch instead of her and the Marauders.

"He likes her, doesn't he?" she said, unable to keep the sadness out of her voice. The boys looked at her sympathetically. They all knew that she liked him – they had worked it out a long time ago. James rubbed her arm slightly, but she shook her head. "I'm fine." She sounded a little bit like she was trying to convince herself more than them, but they knew better than to push her on it.

That evening she went to bed early, but did not really go to sleep early. When the girls in her dorm came in she pretended to be asleep. After a while of lying there, she quietly got out of bed, pulled on a baggy jumper, and sat down by the dying fire in the common room.

She stared in the fire and couldn't help but wonder what it was about her that Sirius didn't like. Was she not pretty enough for him? Like all girls, she held the simple insecurity of being ugly, but Sirius had told her a few times after she had glared at a mirror that she was pretty. Then again, he could just be saying that to be nice. He was really nice.

Or could it be that she was not clever enough? He was a genius without even trying, but Lucy had to work very hard to do well in any subject. She got the marks to show for it, but if she didn't study for a test or exam, her grades would dip.

Or maybe it was just the simple fact that he had been best friends with her for so long that he only saw her as a sister now...maybe she would never be more than a best friend to him, and it would be in both their best interests if she just moved on.

It was a sombre realisation, she thought. But she had tried to move on before, and here she was now.

She was so busy staring into space that she did not notice the teenage boy come and sit down next to her.

"Couldn't sleep, deary?" he guessed. She jumped.

"Sirius!" she exclaimed, reddening a little. He raised an eyebrow, "You gave me a fright."

He smirked, then his gaze softened. "What's keeping you up?"

She smiled on the inside. This was the part of Sirius that she loved more than any other. The part of him that was kind and really cared about her. He wasn't particularly flippant or harsh when he was like this, and it was one of the reasons she liked him so much. "Just thinking," she said, and leaned on his shoulder as he put an arm round her. It wasn't romantic, as they do in films and whatnot, no, this was merely companionable. She wished that it wasn't.

"About what?" he prodded.

She sighed, "Nothing important," he gave up, knowing that if she wanted to tell him, she would have already. "You?" she then asked.

"Same," he murmured. They sat in silence for a while. "I asked Emma Huckle out today. You know, the Ravenclaw girl."

Lucy felt her stomach drop, but managed to keep her face smooth. "You really like her then?"

He nodded, "I think so. She's always really nice to everyone, and she's smart and really pretty."

"Did she say yes?" she asked, dreading the answer slightly.

"Yeah," he said, the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Congrats, then," she said, feeling increasingly awkward and upset, but trying not to show it.

"You're welcome," he said, smiling, then he looked down at her. "How 'bout you, eh?"

"What about me?" she said, though she thought she knew where he was going with this.

"Any boys in this fair school catch your eye?"

She shrugged, "Not really." She lied.

"Aw, come on," he said teasingly, "I'm sure I saw Colin Carmichael looking at you lustfully the other day..."

Lucy shivered at the thought of the creepy Slytherin boy liking her in that way. "And on that note!" she exclaimed, "I'm gonna go try and get some sleep."

"No, stay!" he said, grabbing her arm.

She shook her head, trying to ignore how nice it felt to her with his hand on her arm. "I need sleep if I'm ever gonna get up tomorrow," she laughed.

He sighed, "Fine then! Leave me!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"Okay," she said, skipping up the girls stairs.

"Sleep tight," she heard from the common room, and her shoulders slumped as soon as she was out of sight. Her arm was still tingling from where he had touched it, and she sighed in annoyance.

Looks like she wasn't getting over Sirius Black any time soon.

_Hello =) I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this, as I said before, prelims and whatnot...but they finished today, and i finished this chapter today =) So we're good! I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but this was originally meant to be part of the last chapter, and it was getting a bit long already...anyhoo, hope you liked! Please review! And hopefully I'll update this time in a week! =D _


	6. Chapter 5 Sixth Year

_I still don't own Harry Potter...=/_

Sixth Year

Sirius lay back on his comfortable four-poster, rubbing his temples and feeling utterly exhausted. He let out a sigh, and kicked his shoes of his feet, feeling satisfied as he heard the two thumps as they landed on the ground.

He wondered why life could not just leave him alone for two minutes.

The main reason for his frustration? He had just gotten a letter from his mother.

His mum was the stereotypical "pure-blood", and expected her oldest son to be the same. She believed that muggle-borns didn't really count as witches and wizards and should not be allowed a wand. She thought they were the scum of the earth and looked down on anyone that did not agree. Until Sirius had gone to Hogwarts, she had still sort of thought that Sirius thought the same as her...little did she know how wrong she was. Her illusion was shattered when her slightly rebellious son had been sorted into Gryffindor and made friends with a bunch of "blood-traitors" and "mudbloods".

And she loathed it.

Sirius smiled ironically when he thought of her face when he had told her proudly at the end of his second year that he was taking muggle studies. She was not impressed.

But he had gotten used to his parents disappointment...if he was honest, he really, really hated his family. No, what bothered him today was that among the scathing comments from his mother, which were not exactly what he would call unusual, there was a small congratulations on getting an "honourable, pure-blooded and respectful girlfriend".

He quite liked Emma, but recently he had been finding her a little shallow. Sometimes the things she said reminded him too much of home, his parents and the morals that he had been desperately trying to forget about.

But he was a little scared that he had only been noticing this because his mother approved. He had made it his mission once he started Hogwarts to do everything his parents would most definitely _not_ approve of. He could not help but think that maybe the reason that he was starting to dislike his girlfriend was because his parents approved, and this went against everything he had built for himself over the last six years.

"Something bothering you mate?" asked James, who sat on his own bed, which was next to Sirius'.

Sirius passed the letter over to his best friend, who took it and read quickly.

"Ah," he said.

Sirius nodded, sitting up and leaning against the wall.

"You're worried that you're going off Emma because of what your mum said rather than because of her personality?" he asked.

Sirius smiled slightly. James knew him so well. "Yeah," he said.

"When did you get this letter?" he asked.

"This morning," Sirius said.

"Well..." James thought for a second, "Doncha that maybe you were beginning to go off her before this?"

"How d'you mean?"

"Well, like yesterday." He said, "Emma made some comment about Lucy being muggle-born, and you totally snapped at her."

"Lucy's one of my best friends," said Sirius, "If anyone said anything bad about her, I would snap at them." (_A/N awww =) )_

James nodded, "That's partly my point. Your girlfriend said something not too nice about your best friend. Don't you think that's slightly twisted, mate?"

He sat in silence for a moment, "I just don't know. Sometimes when I'm with her all she talks about is the gossip going around the school, or her hair, or...and then there have been times when it seems like she's about to say "mudblood", but stops herself when she realises that I'm there."

"I'd noticed that," said his friend quietly.

"I just...I feel so confused."

"Did you ever think that maybe she's not the right girl for you, Padfoot?"

Sirius sighed, "Yeah. I mean, I look at her and I really can't imagine spending the rest of my life with her, you know?"

James nodded. "Is there someone else?"

"No!"

"Not even Lucy?"

"She's my best friend, James. She's like my sister."

James shook his head, "Are you sure? I mean, I'm not so sure you actually think about her like that."

"I dunno."

"Right, for the next couple of days, Sirius, stop looking at her as a best friend, and start looking at her as a girl."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "I know she's a girl, Prongs."

He saw a pillow heading his way, and ducked to avoid it. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You know what I meant!"

"Okay, okay, fine."

"What're you gonna do about Emma?"

Sirius sighed, "I think I'm gonna have to break up with her, aren't I?"

"Whatever you think is best, mate." James shrugged. "You gonna come down and play a game of exploding snap? Remus is getting overly-competitive."

He shook his head, "Nah, I think I'm just gonna stay here for a while."

His best friend smiled understandingly. "Cool,"

A few days later, Lucy lay on her bed, a book in her hands. It was a fictional wizarding book – something she had been fascinated to discover actually existed. For some reason it had just never crossed her mind. This one was bought for her by Remus for her birthday, and she had only just gotten round to reading it. Her birthday was in May, and it was now October, so she had taken her time to get round to it.

It hadn't really appealed to her before, but the night before she had picked it up, and she loved it.

However, at the moment, she wasn't actually reading.

She looked up when she heard someone enter the dorm.

"Oh." She said, almost as if she had been hoping for someone else to come in. "Hey Lily,"

"Hey," she said, sitting and leaning against Lucy's bed. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," Lucy said, putting her book down and looking up at the roof of her four-poster. "Sirius broke up with his girlfriend."

Lily nodded, "Yeah," she said.

"I'm not as happy as I imagined," Lucy said after a moment's silence. Lily said nothing, waiting for her to say more. "It's more like...I'm sad that he's sad. But also I'm...I just can't help thinking that this means maybe we have some sort of a chance. I can't help thinking that maybe he broke up with her because he was seeing me as something other than a sister or a friend...and I don't want to think that, because I've thought it before, and it hasn't gotten me anywhere."

"I get what you mean," her friend said, "It makes sense." Lucy practically emitted a sigh of relief. She had been slightly worried that she was thinking utter rubbish. "I'm not gonna tell you that he broke up with her for you," Lily continued, "Because we both know that I don't know that. But, I do see the way he looks at you." Lucy raised her eyebrows, and waited for Lily to continue.

When she did not, she said, "How does he look at me?"

Lily laughed, "I dunno, just something about it. Look, just work it out yourself, and wait and see how things play out, okay?"

"I hate waiting."

"I know you do deary."

(_A/N i was just talking to my mother, and she reassured me that if the world ends before the Hobbit comes out in 2012, then we can re-enact it in heaven :L sorry, back to the story =P)_

Kate, Mary and Alice walked into the door then. Kate looked upset, so the two others decided to give them some privacy. They walked down to the common room, and Lucy sat beside Sirius, who was sitting by the fire. Lily muttered that she was going to the library and walked off.

"I heard about you and Emma," Lucy said to him, "You okay?"

Sirius turned to look at her, shrugged, and put his arm round her, pulling her close to him. "It wasn't working," he said, "She wasn't right for me."

Lucy nodded, leaning into him. "Okay,"

"And besides," he said, with a smile on his face, "My mother was pleased that I was dating a pure-blood...I could never let that happen."

=) =(=)=

Four months later the evenings and mornings were getting lighter, and the air fresher and clearer. Flowers were blooming and birds could regularly be heard chirping in the trees.

At this time in particular, Lucy was outside sitting under the large tree by the lake. She was a little cold, but she couldn't bring herself to leave this place. It was so relaxing, and there was so much stress on her and the rest of her year right now to study for their end of year exams. She saw a bird hopping near her, and smiled in delight. She loved this type of weather.

Sirius sat down next to her, and she looked up at him smiling. "Hey," she said.

"Bonjour," he said in a terrible French accent.. "Here," he said, passing her a foil wrapped chocolate egg. "Happy Easter!"

She grinned in delight, "Yours is in my dorm. You can have it later."

He stuck out his tongue at her. She smashed the egg against the tree, and opened the foil, placing the chocolate in between the two of them. She almost groaned in satisfaction when it touched her tongue – chocolate was amazing.

"This is good chocolate," Sirius said, his mouth full.

"Who said you could have some?" she asked jokingly.

He shrugged, "You put it in the middle, I assumed."

"Well, you know what assuming does..." she teased.

"Yeah, yeah," he waved his hand around in the air. "Whatever."

She laughed, munching on her chocolate.

"Richie Inglis from fifth year asked me out to the Hogsmeade trip the other day," she said conversationally.

"Oh really?" he said.

"Yeah."

"What did you say?" he asked curiously. Lucy couldn't help hoping there was a hint of jealousy there, but it might have been her imagination.

"No, of course. Definitely not my type."

"And what is your type, Miss Chalke?" he asked.

She pretended to think for a moment, "I dunno...the guy I like refuses to see me as anything other than a friend," she said, hints heavy behind her light words.

"Well whoever this guy is he must be an idiot."

"Oh, he is." She said, wondering what was making her so bold. Maybe it was the chocolate. "Sometimes I wonder if I even like him that much."

"Well maybe he doesn't deserve you..." he said, facing her. His grey eyes were dark.

"Maybe he deserves better." She said softly, looking down at her knees.

Sirius caught her chin in his fingertips and brought her face up so she was looking him into the eyes. And then, without any warning, his lips were on hers, and she was kissing him.

She was kissing him...

Lucy Chalke was kissing Sirius Black.

And it was even more than she had ever dared to dream of.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Lucy?" he whispered.

_Well, I hope this didn't disappoint. I never wanted this story to be all about them getting together, so there is still *a lot* more, so don't worry...and the whole "little excerpts from each year" thing is done now, so we're all good and happy! I got no reviews last chapter, which made me sad =( so pleeease review! It makes my day when you do, honestly...but thank you for reading this anyway! =) _


	7. Chapter 6  The Start of Summer

_I don't own Harry Potter..._

The Summer before Seventh Year

"I missed you so much!" Lucy exclaimed as her boyfriend of five-and-a-bit months caught her in his arms.

"I missed you too!" he said, a grin on his face. "How was your holiday?"

"Awesome!" she exclaimed. She had been to France for two weeks with her parents, and it was great. She had even convinced her parents to take her to a wizarding seaside village, which was wonderful.

Joe hadn't come.

"Everyone was so lovely, and I had the _best_ breakfasts ever there!" she said with a laugh. "How was yours?"

Sirius had gone away with the Potters...they honestly viewed him as their own son. It made him feel warm inside to think of it, "It was fantastic!" he exclaimed. They had been to a wizarding village in France, "We went to this awesome French Quidditch shop, and the beach was great!"

"Didn't meet any hot French girls there, did you?" she asked him, her eyes teasing.

"Actually, there was this one girl...we had an epic summer romance..."

Lucy hit him on the shoulder and he laughed loudly. They walked to Fortescue's ice cream parlour, where Lily was already sitting. They ordered ice creams and spent a while talking and catching up.

James appeared soon after, pushing his hand through his hair, in the way that made Lily really want to kill him. Sirius and Lucy merely laughed at them, finding their antics hilarious. Sirius seemed to be regretting the bet he had made with Lucy so many years ago a little bit now...

_Meanwhile..._

Voldemort was angry. No, not just angry. He was furious. Bellatrix looked up at him, terrified.

"Did I do wrong, Master?" she asked him, her voice pitifully weak. This only enraged him further.

"No, Bellatrix." He said, his high voice echoing round the dark room. "No. Tell me, how did he think to keep this?"

"He changed his name, my Lord. He seemed to think that this would disguise him enough. But those of us who had been with him at school recognised him immediately. He has a mudblood sister, so it is obvious that he also is a mudblood."

"Scum," he hissed, then shook his head, his anger rising, "I knew he was lying. But I never thought it was something such as this. Those people don't normally come near me for fear. I have to say, I am a little impressed."

Bellatrix' eyes were huge, glinting, "You are not going to let him away with it?"

"No," said Voldemort sharply, "No-one lies to Lord Voldemort and gets away with it. No...No I will play with him a little. You say he has a sister?"

"Yes," she said, "A seventh year, if I am correct. She is in a relationship of sorts with the blood traitor Sirius Black."

Voldemort's eyes were calculating. A small smile graced his lips. "Oh really? And what did you say his real name was?"

"I didn't my Lord."

The 1st of September

Lucy dragged her trunk onto the train (with the help of Sirius and James) and found a compartment with Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter.

"Where are Alice, Kate and Mary?" Lucy asked Lily after they had exchanged greetings, "I didn't see them in their usual compartment."

Alice, Kate and Mary were the three girls that Lucy and Lily shared a dorm with. Alice, Kate and Mary were all quite close, although Alice regularly came and joined Lily and Lucy. Occasionally the two girls would share a compartment with the other three, when Lily couldn't be bothered with the boys antics, and they got on well enough. They always had the same compartment, every year, so it was unusual that there was nobody in it other than a couple of first years – but the three girls normally scared any younger students out of it.

"They weren't in there?" asked Lily, "That's odd. Maybe they're just a little late."

"Hm, whatever." Lucy said, and thought no more of it. "How were your holidays?" they had seen each other at the start, but Lily had been in Austria for the last few weeks, so they had some serious catching up to do.

The train journey passed rather quickly, with no upsets or disturbances. They still didn't see Alice, Mary or Kate, but they didn't really think about it. When they got to the Great Hall, however they started to realise that something was wrong. The other girls still weren't there, and the banners that hung from above were black.

Seeing these, Lucy felt a nudge of fear in her stomach, and looked at Lily, whose face was pale. Most of the older students seemed to notice that something was not quite right, so there was a sombre mood as everyone sat down. The sorting was not quite right – no first year would notice it, but it was a lot faster, the lines around Professor McGonagall's face were a lot tighter than usual. It was small things, but everyone seemed to be on high alert after having seen the black banners.

Finally Dumbledore stood up.

"Welcome!" he exclaimed, his arms spread out wide, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! However, now is not the time for talking, but eating! So as my dear old Grandfather used to say, stick in till you stick out!"

Laughter and chatter filled the hall, as people reached for the food that lay on the table. Lucy watched as Dumbledore sat down next to McGonagall, the two immediately launching into conversation. Lucy looked at Sirius, who looked just as confused as she felt. He shrugged, as if to say _we'll just have to wait and find out_, and then reached for a chicken drumstick. She followed suit, though by the time the pudding was getting scraped off the plates, most people were staring expectantly at Dumbledore, who appeared to be finishing the last of his treacle tart.

McGonagall nudged him, whispered something in his ear and glared at him. He sighed, put his spoon down and got to his feet. The hall was silent.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" he exclaimed, but his eyes weren't twinkling like they normally did, "Might I remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is indeed forbidden, as the name would suggest. Also, a list of the banned items is on the door of Mr Filch's office, if any of you care to take a look." He paused, and Lucy felt her stomach flip, "However, at the moment we have more pressing matters at hand, as many of you may have noticed," he gestured to the black banners which decorated the hall. Nobody was speaking. Dumbledore sighed, "It is my sad duty to inform you that a few days ago, Kate Small and her family were found murdered in their home, the dark mark above their house."

The hall was completely silent. Lucy felt her stomach drop, and her face went completely white. She stared at Dumbledore – he was still talking, but she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying anymore. She looked over at Lily, whose eyes had filled with tears. All Lucy could feel was shock – this wasn't real! It couldn't be real. People didn't just _die_ at seventeen! That didn't happen.

Sirius gripped Lucy's hand tightly as they left the hall – he also seemed to be in shock. Dumbledore came sweeping up to the six of them (Lucy, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter) and asked for a word with Lily and Lucy. They nodded, and said they'd see the boys tomorrow.

"Girls, I thought I would just apologise for not telling you about this earlier," he said, "I know you were in a dormitory with Kate, and I am deeply regretful for not having told you earlier."

"It's all right, Professor." said Lily, her voice shaky, "We weren't close to her like Alice and Mary were."

Dumbledore nodded, "Good. Alice and Mary will be coming back to school tomorrow. I'm sure I don't need to ask that you will be there for them?"

"Of course," said Lucy.

When they entered their dorm, Kate's empty bed seemed to stand out to them. Lucy found it really weird – her mind was still getting round the fact that Kate was _dead._ She wondered if someone would come and take away the bed, or if it would just be left there. That bed, she thought, would be a constant reminder to them, but maybe that's what they needed. Maybe it would become something of a constant memorial to the first loss they'd all suffered in this war.

It was all becoming real now, Lucy realised. Before, the war had seemed like something far away, not really talked about – but now she understood. Voldemort was real, this wasn't just something that was far away and that they could ignore, it was right here on their doorstep, and there was nothing they could do to stop that.

Both girls got changed for bed silently, and made the pretence of going to bed. It wasn't until Lucy heard Lily quietly sobbing to herself that she got up and knelt by her bedside. Lily, she knew, had been closer to Kate than she was. When Lucy was with the boys, sometimes Lily came with her, but she still stayed with Mary, Alice and Kate quite a lot too. She held Lily as she cried.

"I can't believe she's gone," said Lily in a small voice.

The next day was possibly one of the worst that Lucy had ever experienced at school. She had known it would be. The seventh years were all subdued at breakfast, and Alice and Mary had yet to show up. The annoying thing was, the younger years were reasonably cheerful – and by all rights they deserved to be – but to the seventh years it just felt wrong. In her first class, Ancient Runes, her teacher burst into tears. It was horrible.

Alice and Mary showed up at lunch, sitting next to Lucy and Lily. The Marauders sat further down the table, not really wanting to intrude.

"How are you doing?" asked Lucy softly.

Alice shrugged, "I dunno. It's weird, you know? It's kinda hard to believe."

"Yeah," Mary said, "I mean, it's not that weird that she's not here today, because people get sick all the time, and I keep thinking that could be all that it is, you know?"

Lucy nodded. The thought had crossed her mind too.

"People keep on asking us how we're doing, but it's not just about us, though, is it? We've all lost someone; it shouldn't just be about us." Alice said.

She couldn't help thinking how kind those two girls were at this point. They had lost someone who was like a sister to them, and they were still thinking about other people, not just themselves. Nobody would have blamed them if they didn't spare a thought to anyone else, and yet, they did.

After a short silence, Mary said, "She knew You-Know-Who was after her and her family, you know." Lucy's eyes widened slightly, but then she remembered. That day, sometime last year – she and Lily had been having a discussion about Sirius and Emma breaking up, and the three had come in, Kate looking upset. They had left to give them some privacy...Was that when Kate had just found out?

How could you live like that? She had been so happy over the last year, she remembered...how did that information not eat her up inside? She had a newfound respect for the girl...to have been such a kind, happy, genuine person when she knew that she may or may not have much time left on this earth, rather than getting depressed about it? Lucy wasn't sure that she would have been the same.

_Just so you know - this has been ready to be put up since saturday 26th or sunday 27th, but it's not letting me upload it...says there's an error or something =/ if this is up, then you know, obviously, that it's finally working, and i'm really sorry for the delay =( _

_Ugh. I don't feel I did that chapter justice...I'm sorry guys! I had to get something out though. If you feel the characters reactions weren't realistic, feel free to tell me, but something like this happened at my school a while back, and that was how people reacted – I'm trying to make it as realistic as I can, so I'm sorry if I disappointed anyone. I'm probably not going to be updating much soon, because exams are coming up. Again. Not impressed. But I'll try! Yeah, so please review =) _


	8. Chapter 7 When the Sand Runs Out

_I still don't own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money from this._

When the Sand Runs Out

That first week proved to be one of the hardest that most of the seventh years had ever experienced in their lives. Lucy in particular found herself questioning the certainty of life, and she most definitely realised something of the reality of war. Before, war had been merely something that was far away from them, a distant story that lay on the outskirts of Hogwarts. The fact that Voldemort had managed to get to someone that was on the inside was a huge eye opener for them all, and many found it hard to cope with. A few people had gotten pulled out of Hogwarts recently.

"It's stupid," Sirius muttered to Lucy when a Hufflepuff in their Potions class got pulled out to go home, "Do they not realise that she was killed _outside _of Hogwarts?"

"Sirius," she murmured, carefully chopping some boomslang skin, "They're just scared. This is the first time that something like this has struck so close to home – of course people are going to react badly to it."

He shrugged, trying to weigh out some hot water, "But still. Hogwarts is the safest place to be. We've got _Dumbledore._"

She did wonder if maybe his opinion was a bit naive – sure, there were a lot of rumours going around about how Dumbledore was the only person You-Know-Who was scared of...but still. She really doubted that You-Know-Who was actually scared of _anyone._

Lucy did learn the valuable lesson of appreciating what she had when she still had it. She understood that there were so many things in life that she took for granted – even just life itself! She made a conscious decision to try and be more grateful for everything she had, and was vaguely reminded of a song her mum played around the house a lot by an American country band. She decided to check it out when she was at home for Christmas – she knew her mother would be ecstatic that she was taking an interest in "proper" music, for once.

It was weird, she thought, when she realised that she spent so much time worrying about schoolwork, and whether so-in-so liked her or not , but she could just drop dead any day. That day could be her last day on earth – and she was living it worrying about the stupid, pointless things.

The first few weeks were awful, but weeks soon turned into months, and before the seventh years knew it they were knee-deep in unit tests and homework. Sirius, Remus, James and Peter also seemed to be replacing a lot of this studying with prank planning, but Lucy turned a blind eye to it, knowing that they all needed a bit of a laugh every once in a while.

She also noticed that James appeared to be laying off Lily a little, and that the prank planning appeared to be happening when she wasn't around. Lucy knew what he was doing, and was glad that he was finally paying attention to what people had been telling him for far too long. She was glad.

The mood was lifting for once, and the group were sitting in the Great Hall having lunch. Peter was telling them about his summer at his Gran's house.

"...and then I had to go to bed without dinner. I mean, what age am I, five?" he ranted.

James looked him up and down, "Well, you are a bit on the short side."

Sirius chortled into his soup, while Peter proceeded to try and stare James down. Lucy just rolled her eyes.

"You know what's weird?" Mary exclaimed suddenly.

"Wha'?" asked Alice, her mouth full of bread.

"Ugh, Alice, sometimes I really don't know what Frank sees in you," said Lily, wrinkling her nose up in disgust. James, who had been about to open his mouth to say something quickly swallowed. Sirius and Lucy caught each other's eyes and snickered. He glared at them.

Oblivious to the slight diversion, Mary continued, "There's Quidditch in a week, and James isn't obsessing!"

Everybody groaned as James' face lit up. He frowned, "What? No, seriously what?"

Lily rolled her eyes when he continued to look around them all, clearly confused, his brow furrowed as he tried to work out what we were talking about. "What, you don't like it when I talk about Quidditch? Come on, I'm not _that_ bad!"

Remus snorted slightly, "Yeah, right."

"I'm not!"

"If you're not that bad," said Lily, smirking slightly, "Then for the next week you won't talk about Quidditch at all."

"At all?" he said, his eyes widening.

"Is that too scary for you, Potter?" she said.

"No!" he exclaimed quickly, "But what's in it for me? I mean, what do I get if I don't talk about it for a _whole week?"_

"The warm feeling inside when you realise that you actually have a little bit of self control..." said Remus, dipping a toast shoulder into the yolk of his egg.

"You're eating eggs at lunch," said James, his eyebrows furrowed, "That's weird."

"What?" said Remus, "That's not weird...that's perfectly normal!"

"No it's not!" then he shook his head, "And I _do_ have self control!"

"James, the other day in Potions you decided to drink the potion you were making because you thought it looked pretty," said Lucy. Sirius snorted, and reached over to high-five his girlfriend.

"In my defence," James said, "It was a really nice shade of green."

"You spent three hours throwing up in the Hospital Wing." Remus said.

"And anyway," said Lucy, "Since when was the colour green in any way appetising?"

"What is this, gang up on James day?" he exclaimed.

"Yes," stated Peter. "Yes it is."

"Right," said Lily, "If you fail...if you even mention Quidditch to any of us, then you have to eat eggs at lunch,"

"Ew!" he exclaimed and Sirius smirked. "I mean...okay. Sure. And if I win?"

"If you don't fail," said Lily slyly, "Then...I'll buy you any joke product you want from Zonko's..."

"Yes!" exclaimed James, "You are so on."

"I give him two hours." said Lucy.

_One week later..._

"He did it." Lily said, staring at herself in the mirror. "I cannot believe he actually did it."

"What can I say, Lily?" Lucy chuckled, "If he's anything, he's stubborn."

"That's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous."

"Don't cry my dear," she said laughing and hooking a red and gold Gryffindor scarp around her friend's neck, "It's Quidditch time!"

"You know, for someone who can't fly a broomstick, you get unbelievably excited about a game played on broomsticks..."

"What can I say?" she said grinning, "I'm a walking contradiction! Now cummoooon...I'm hungry. And I wanna wish the team luck!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're too excited."

"You're not excited enough."

"Am too."

"Whatever," said Lucy, sticking her tongue out at her, and flinging the dorm door open. "Let's go!"

They met the Marauders in the common room, Lucy quickly pecking Sirius on the cheek. "You guys excited?" she asked chirpily.

"Am I allowed to talk about it yet?" asked James, his eyes narrowing at Lily.

She laughed slightly, a blush appearing on her cheeks that Lucy did not miss, "I suppose you've earned it."

He grinned happily, "I love Quidditch!" he exclaimed. "It's the _best._"

Everyone laughed at James' overexcited face.

_Two hours later, _Lucy, Lily, Remus and Peter were all sitting in the stands of the Quidditch Pitch, cheering Gryffindor on. Sirius was the commentator, which was always amusing. Gryffindor were winning 120-40, and, well, they weren't exactly being modest about it.

James had the quaffle at this point, and he quickly passed it to another chaser. He flew up the pitch, it was passed back to him and he threw it through the middle hoop.

"Go, go Gryffindor, go, go Gryffindor!" was the chant that was raised among the red and gold side of the stands.

"Aaand, another outstanding goal for Gryffindor!" exclaimed Sirius through his microphone, "Well done, Potter. Now, Slytherin in possession, and, Quigley gets it, passes to McDonald, and – _blimey! _That was a foul! It had to be! Madam Hooch!"

Mary McDonald had been viciously shoved, and had almost fallen off her broom. Thankfully, she was fine and managed to regain control, still clutching the ball.

"And that's a free pass to Gryffindor, and...yes! Very well done, Miss McDonald. That's 140-40...Slytherin are losing atrociously at this point I'm afraid to say."

McGonagall didn't tell him off, it was true. They were one hundred points down...if Gryffindor got another fifty point ahead, the chances of Slytherin winning, even if they caught the snitch, were, well, zero. They couldn't.

Slytherin called a time out, and the two teams huddled at opposite sides of the pitch.

"You have to admit," said Lucy, "He is good."

Lily smiled slightly, "I never said he wasn't."

The time out came to an end, and the Slytherin team looked angry. They started to play dirty, and many fouls were made. Eventually, the score was 160-50 – and Slytherin were not happy about it.

"And, Potter in possession. He shoots, he scores! What is the Slytherin keeper playing at today?" said Sirius in mock disappointment. "Because it's certainly not Quidditch!"

Unseen to most, the Slytherin keeper was enraged by this comment. As the match went on, the keeper became more and more angry, until finally he was reaching breaking point.

"And once again, Potter scores," said Sirius sounding slightly bored, "And, what's this? Gryffindor seeker, Cootes, appears to have found the snitch!"

Indeed he had. He was shooting downwards on the way towards a glint of gold that everyone now saw. Everyone was cheering loudly, and then Cootes held up his hand, the snitch in his hand.

"And Gryffindor WINS!" yelled Sirius, "At a stunning score of 250-100, the Gryffindor team showed outstanding skill – JAMES!"

Hearing the terrified shout of Sirius, Lucy searched him out, and saw him falling toward the ground. She felt her heart drop, Lily screamed, Remus yelled, and Lucy squealed.

_Half an hour later_, the five of them were huddled around James' bed. "Are you sure he'll be okay?" demanded Sirius to Madam Pomfrey. "He hit the ground pretty hard."

"I am sure." She said firmly, "I have been a healer for a few years now, and believe me, he will be fine. His head will hurt a little when he wakes up, but other than that, he will be perfectly fine."

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey," Lily said quietly, "Don't worry about Sirius, he's just worried."

"That's quite all right, Miss Evans," said Madam Pomfrey with a knowing glance at Lily's red rimmed eyes. Lily may not admit to liking James, but everyone else around them could see that it was obvious she liked him.

Lucy sighed as she walked away, "I still can't believe that Slytherin seeker got away with that," she muttered. She was sitting in the chair beside his head. "I've never been so scared in my life,"

"He didn't get away with it," said Remus grinning, "Did you not hear McGonagall yelling at him? He's got two weeks of detention with her. That's got to be tough."

"I always knew she had a soft spot for me," James murmured, opening his eyes.

"James!" exclaimed Lucy, "How are you feeling?"

"Like someone hit me on the head with a beater's bat." He said, sitting up. "Oh wait. Someone _did _do that."

Everyone laughed more than they normally would at that, relieved that he was okay.

Later, as Lily and Lucy walked back to the common room, leaving the boys to talk about weird boy stuff, Lucy spoke, "You like him." She accused.

"What?" exclaimed Lily, her voice going rather high and squeaky, "No I don't! It's Potter! Why would I like him?"

"Because you do."

"I don't." Lily said, but the blush on her face said otherwise.

"You do."

"I don't!"

"Right. Sure." She laughed, "Because you normally cry when your self-declared mortal enemy gets hurt playing Quidditch, right?"

"Oh, shut up."

_Sorry for the wait guys! Exams really ruin ones social life...but they're over now! I hope you've enjoyed the last couple of months, the sun only just came out here in Scotland :L Well, it was here yesterday, not so much today =P I hope this chapter didn't disappoint, and I'll try and update as soon as I can!_


	9. Chapter 8  Orders and Christmas

_I don't own Harry Potter._

Orders and Christmas

"I was against you joining the Inner Circle." stated Bellatrix bluntly as the two of them walked down the dark corridors. Joe raised his eyebrows slightly at the odd woman before him. She was a bit of a maniac, he knew that, but he liked being a Death Eater. He enjoyed the power, and he was glad that she had not managed to stand in his way.

"How lovely," he said dryly, "My name's Joe by the way."

"I know what your name is." She snapped, "I know rather a lot about you."

He visibly whitened, and Bella smirked, "What do you mean?" he demanded.

"Just what the Dark Lord has told me," she said, "Your name, where you're from, your personality."

He visibly relaxed, and she couldn't help but grin at his discomfort, "I don't like you." She said, "You have the wrong traits for a Death Eater."

"You mean I'm sane?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Bellatrix had him up against the wall with her wand at her neck, her eyes glinting madly before he could blink an eye.

"You listen here, and you listen good, you filthy little Mudblood. You may think you deserve a place here among us, but I know the truth, and I will not stop until you are dead, you hear me? So you better watch your step here, because I'm going to be behind you watching your every step, just _waiting _for a chance to watch you _fail._"

She let go of him, and he just nodded. "In there," she said, pointing to a door.

He pushed it open, apprehension building in him. He was shaking slightly and his palms were growing sweaty. He was scared.

"You're late." Murmured the high-pitched voice of the man he idolised. He kneeled at the Dark Lord's feet and said: "I am sorry my Lord."

"Indeed," said Voldemort, "But I cannot let you go unpunished. The Dark Lord does not like to be kept waiting,"

Joe had only a moment to wonder why he was speaking in third person before he was engulfed in pain. It hurt so badly, but soon it was over. He found himself lying on the ground, his hands clenched, his chest heaving as he panted.

The Dark Lord smiled slightly, looking down on his newest servant. "Kneel down at my feet, Earsdon."

Joe forced himself to kneel, his whole body trembling with terror and pain. "Now. I have something that I would like you to do for me." He said softly. It was obvious that he didn't have an option. If he didn't do this, he would be dead. "As an...initiation of sorts. So you can prove yourself to me. Prove your allegiance."

"Whatever you want, my Lord." Joe said, bowing his head.

His smile was dangerous, "I would like you to go to this address," he waved his wand, and a piece of paper appeared in Joe's hand. "And I would like you to kill the muggles who live there."

He just nodded. He had known all along that he would have to do stuff like this. He knew the first time would probably be the hardest, but he had prepared himself for this. He had no illusions (as far as he knew) about what he would encounter. He was ready.

"Of course, my Lord." He murmured.

The Dark Lord nodded, and then said, "Now, leave my presence. I have things to do."

"Yes. Thank you, my Lord."

It was only when Joe left the room that he looked at the note, and it was only then that his face paled and he slid down the wall to the floor. And it was only then that Voldemort smiled to himself upon hearing the almost silent whisper from the other side of the door.

"No..."

_Star Star Star (Just for the record, that's my new way of showing a change in time, or POV or whatever...)_

"Happy Christmas!" exclaimed Lucy as she fell onto the sofa downstairs.

"Happy Christmas, Lucy dear." Her father said, kissing her on the cheek, "You opened your stocking?"

She grinned, "Of course! Thank you Santa!" she said, looking at her mother.

Her mum laughed, "Santa says you're welcome." She handed her a large wrapped gift, "Here you go!"

"Thanks Mum!" she squealed when she saw what she had gotten. She loved Christmas. She got lots of amazing gifts and she got the chance to catch up with all her family that she didn't see very often.

Late on Christmas evening, Lucy got up to get a glass of water, feeling parched. She went down the stairs quietly, not wanting to wake her parents. When she got to the kitchen, she noted that the door was closed, and a line of dim light was spilling out from underneath. Surprised, she listened carefully and noticed that she could hear the hushed voices of her parents. Not really knowing why, she stayed standing outside the door, listening to her parents quietly conversing. She became aware very quickly that one of them was crying.

"I just don't understand why he's deserted us," she heard her mother sob.

"Honey, it was that school." She heard her father say.

"But it's worked wonders on Lucy. She's so much more confident and wonderful than she was as a child, and it's Hogwarts that's done it to her."

"Obviously it had the opposite effect on Joe. I don't know why, but for some reason he seems to be ashamed of us."

"But why? And why won't he even come to see us? At Christmas...Christmas of all times."

Her thirst forgotten, Lucy ran back up the stairs to her room. She hadn't realised how much this was affecting her parents. She didn't think that they would have noticed...But they had. A surge of anger ran through her. Didn't her brother understand how much this was hurting his parents?

_Star star star_

Lucy was spending New Year at James' house, or, mansion more like. Sirius, Lily, Remus and Peter were all staying, and they spent all day having fun and had a huge party of their own for New Year. She loved every minute of it. After she sent a quick owl to her parents to wish them a Happy New Year, she and Lily introduced the boys to some muggle things – they went to the cinema and they went swimming and they went to a theme park. It was so much fun and the boys absolutely loved it.

She was so busy spending time with her friends, that she didn't even notice that her parents hadn't replied to her letter. And by the time she got back to Hogwarts, the letter she had sent was completely forgotten.

_Hi guys =) Sorry it's been so long! What with exams, and then holidays and camp and then exam results and then starting school again i have had no time to update! And this year has a lot more work than I expected so I'll try to update as regularly as I can but I can't promise anything. This chapter's really just a short filler, so sorry about that, but things will start to pick up again soon =) Thanks for reading, and please drop me a wee review! _


	10. Chapter 9 Fights and Fears

_Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter...Or...AVPS. As there is a tiny reference in this chapter...that might not even be considered a reference, but I do!_

Fights and Fears

Lucy leaned into Sirius with a sigh. She wasn't looking forward to tomorrow in the slightest...these holidays had been so much fun, and she simply didn't want them to end. She sat with Sirius, Lily, James, Remus and Peter at the Gryffindor table. It was dinner time, the last night of the Christmas Holidays.

"You ready for our last dinner of freedom?" he asked with a smile.

"No..." she moaned. "I don't want to go back to classes and homework and studying..."

He smiled, "It'll be fine. You're clever, don't worry about it."

Lucy didn't smile back, as she was not quite as convinced as he appeared to be. She didn't like it when people just assumed that she would do well in her exams. It wasn't as easy as that! She thought that Sirius understood her feelings on this matter, but clearly not. Of course, she thought slightly bitterly, Sirius was so good at everything without having to work at anything that he probably didn't understand that normal people actually had to put in effort to get good grades.

He didn't appear to notice her annoyance. "Here – have some shepherd's pie."

"I don't like shepherd's pie, Sirius!" she snapped. "You know that!"

"Eh...no I don't. Well, I do now, but..."

"You're meant to know these things! It's what keeps a relationship alive!" she exclaimed.

"I'm...sorry, I guess," he said, flabbergasted. "I didn't think it was...that big a deal?" his statement came out as a question, which resulted in angering Lucy even more.

She huffed, and got up from the Gryffindor table. "Well if that's what you think, Sirius, then you clearly don't know me as well as I thought you did!"

"What?" he asked, utterly clueless.

"Ugh, just forget it." She spat, and turned away from him, causing her hair to flip dramatically, stormed out the hall and away from him. Left at the table, everyone around him in silence, he looked at the others and said, "What did I do?"

James merely laughed and patted him on the back, "Women, eh?"

(_A/N – I realise that this seems slightly over dramatic and annoying, but I figured that Lucy was just being weird and annoying and just wanted someone to take it out on someone...she is human after all)_

_Star star star_

Meanwhile, Lucy was wandering the corridors of Hogwarts, feeling like an utter idiot. She was just stressed at the thought of going back to classes and constant studying and she took it out on Sirius. She really hoped that he would forgive her for being so stupid. She wondered if he would hold it against her. She thought he wouldn't, but he _was_ quite unpredictable and sometimes could be quite offended by small things.

Suddenly, she was brought out of her musings by the voice of Professor McGonagall from behind her.

"Miss Chalke?" If Lucy had been being a bit more observant, rather than preoccupied by worries about Sirius, then maybe she would have noticed the more gentle tone to her teacher's voice. She turned around at her name. "Would you please accompany me to Professor Dumbledore's office?"

Nervousness building in her stomach, she nodded silently, and followed McGonagall to his office. Was she in trouble? She couldn't remember anything she had done wrong recently, other than what she had just done to Sirius, and she was sure the Marauders hadn't done anything that they could blame on her...

"You're not in trouble, Lucy." She said quietly, looking down at her with sad eyes. Lucy nodded, but still wasn't convinced. When they came to two stone gargoyles, McGonagall said "Red Vines," in a clear voice, and they were granted entrance to the spiral staircase which led up to Dumbledore's office. When at the top, McGonagall knocked and took her into a room that glittered with magic. It was full of odd bits and bobs, and if Lucy hadn't been feeling so nervous, she felt that she would have loved to explore this place some more.

Dumbledore offered Lucy a seat, but as she sat, she noticed how downcast his eyes were. He looked a little older than he had the last time she saw him. Her heart was in her throat in anticipation at what she was about to hear. He was surveying her over clasped hands, his gaze penetrating, and she wondered what was going on in her head.

"You are probably wondering why I had you brought here today," he stated. She nodded, not sure whether she was supposed to answer, but not wanting to be rude. He sighed, "There is no easy way to tell you this, so I'm afraid that I will just have to say it." Lucy was aware that McGonagall was standing right behind her stiffly. "Lucy, there was an attack on your house by Death Eaters. Your parents were found dead in the house."

Silence reigned in the room, except Lucy could hear her heart thumping in her ears. Her hands were shaking madly, and she was staring at her headmaster, her eyes wide.

"Wh...What?"

"I'm so very sorry," he murmured. She became aware that her head of house was gripping her shoulder tightly.

"I...I don't understand," she said. "My parents aren't...they can't be..." for some reason, she could not bring herself to say that one word. She felt that maybe some sort of reality would come if she said that word, and somehow, if she didn't say it then it wasn't true.

"I know it's hard to understand, my dear." He said. "You may come to me any time you wish, and we shall have another talk later to discuss living situations, etc. However, now, you may grieve. I will alert your teachers that you are to have time off classes until you feel you are ready to attend. And if you need anything – _anything_ – you are to come to Professor McGonagall ormyself. You are not alone in this. There are many people here to look after you."

She nodded dumbly, not really understanding what was happening.

"May I leave?" she asked, realising that she couldn't stand to stay in this office for any longer.

"Yes, you may," he said sadly, and McGonagall guided her out of the office. She stopped suddenly when she came to the door.

"Who?" she asked, her voice harsh. Dumbledore didn't need to ask what she meant by that, but he knew by the look in her eyes that she hated whoever had done this, no matter who they were.

"All we know," he said tiredly, ",is that it is the work of a servant of Lord Voldemort," she didn't even flinch at his name, Dumbledore noticed. Maybe she didn't notice. "The Dark Mark was found above your home."

_Star star star_

Whether it was hours later, or minutes, she didn't know, but she found herself in a random corridor. She wasn't sure when she had started crying, but at some point it had sunk in a little that she had lost her parents. Soon she was sobbing into her knees, not paying attention to anything around her. Someone had killed her parents – who would do that? Why would they do that? Her parents were _muggles_, they had nothing to do with the war! They didn't even know there _was_ a war! Why would anyone want to hurt them?

Was it her fault, she wondered? Was it because she was a witch? Was it a hate crime? Was it because she was a muggle born? Why?

Why was the wizarding world so messed up?

She suddenly felt someone slide down the wall to sit next to her. She tried to stop the tears, with only a little success.

"Lucy...listen." said the voice, and she realised it was Sirius. "I don't understand...why you are so...upset about this. But...maybe there's something else going on here that I don't understand. I don't know. But I'll try to learn about the small things from now on...you know I really do care about you, and if knowing the small things really means that much to you...then I'll try to learn better. I'm sorry."

She was momentarily confused; her earlier fight had disappeared from her mind. Then she remembered, and a surge of gratitude for her boyfriend surged up in her.

"Oh, Sirius," she said, "You didn't do anything wrong." Her lip trembled, and she held back the tears that were threatening to spill. "Something...something's happened," her voice cracked on the last word, and she started to cry again. Sirius' eyes widened, and he pulled her to him, letting her cry for a while.

"Lucy," he said, trying to be patient, but she could sense the urgency in his voice. "What's going on?"

"My parents...Sirius...My parent are...they're...they're dead," she whispered the last word, dissolving completely. His breath caught in his throat, and he held her.

"Oh my...Oh, Lucy." He rubbed her arm softly, at a loss of what he could possibly do to make her feel better. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."

_Sorryyy for how long this has taken me to get up! This school year has been so much more work than I thought it would be! I will try to update as often as I can, but it's much more than I anticipated. Thanks to you guys for all your amazing reviews from last chapter, they were amazing! I've noticed you all seem to enjoy the Joe part of the story more than the Lucy part, and I totally agree to be honest! But I can't give too much Joe stuff without giving away everything in the story =P Anyhoo, hope you enjoyed, and please review! Thanks guys! _


	11. Chapter 10  Fears and Funerals

_I don't own Harry Potter_

Fears and Funerals

"Thank you for coming," Lucy said to the elderly couple in front of her with a small smile.

"It was a beautiful service," The woman said. Lucy recognised her, but could not quite remember her name. She seemed to remember her baby sitting her at some point when she was younger, but she wasn't exactly sure. "I'm so sorry for what happened. Do they...know what caused it yet?"

She shook her head. "They're not sure." She said, even though she did know, but she couldn't tell the older woman that. This was a muggle service, after all, and they were muggles. She didn't think that she could tell them that it was the killing curse, and probably because one of the most evil wizards of all time. That probably wouldn't go down all that well. Sirius was standing by her side holding her hand tightly, his face tense. He didn't like living in the muggle world too much – despite the fact he disagreed with his parent's ideology, he still found it difficult to be in a world that he was told was wrong for most of his life.

"And where is your brother?" asked the man, "I expected him to be here, these were his parents too, after all."

She sighed. "They left on...bad terms before they died." That was an understatement. Well, their parents had not actually known that they had left on bad terms, but he had, and that appeared to be what counted to him.

"Yes, well." The man shook his head disapprovingly, "You'd think he would come to their funeral. They were his parents after all."

"I know," she said politely. She agreed with him, but she didn't really want to badmouth her brother at her parent's funeral.

"Anyway," the woman said, "We better be going now. Look after yourself, Lucy."

"Thank you," she said with another polite smile turning away from the couple.

"You had no idea who they were, did you?" asked Sirius, a smirk on his face.

She shook her head with a giggle, "No," Then she frowned again, remembering where she was. She sighed. "I really thought he would come."

He rubbed his thumb along her hand, "Don't waste your time thinking about him."

She sighed, "I just want to go back to Hogwarts now. It seems so stupid eating and drinking...as if this was a really rubbish party. I mean, it's almost like we're celebrating. But what is there to celebrate right now?"

"It's weird," he said, "We don't really do this in the wizarding world."

She looked up at him questioningly.

"Well you just have a short service and then you bury them. That's it."

She shrugged, "It sounds easier. A lot less drawn out."

He nodded, and looked over the church hall to see the door open, and a figure walk in. His body tensed up, and, noticing this, Lucy looked over to see what he was glaring at.

"He came," she muttered angrily. "He came over an_ hour_ late."

"Lucy – " Sirius said, but it was too late, she was already storming over to where he was standing, looking extremely awkward, and glaring at the many muggles around him.

"What on earth is wrong with you!" she demanded as soon as she came close enough to see him.

"Lucy, I – " Joe started awkwardly.

"You what?" she snapped. "You expect to just waltz in her over an hour late and expect everything to be okay?"

"I'm sorry, I just – "

"No!" She exclaimed.

"Lucy, don't you think you should take this outside – " Sirius said, having just caught up with her.

"No, I don't, Sirius." She said, not even turning to look at him, but continuing to glare at her brother. "Look, I know you think you're too big for this kind of setting with this kind of people. I know you think you're so great because you're following _him_ now, and you believe the _stupid_ things he says, but these are your parents! Do you have absolutely no respect?" she demanded, her voice getting gradually louder as she spoke to him. She was trying to be as subtle as she could about what she was talking about, so that the muggles wouldn't start get suspicious, but she was so angry.

Everyone in the room was quiet now, staring at the two siblings. "Lucy, I don't know what to say." There was immense guilt in his eyes, as he looked at his little sister.

"Maybe that you're sorry? Maybe that you regret how much pain you caused your parents because you didn't even contact them for Christmas? I mean, they _loved_ you Joe! And no matter what you did, they would have welcomed you back with open arms – "

"_Shut up!" _roared Joe. "You don't know _anything!"_

"But they would have! They were your parents, and even before they died, they still wished you would come back to them so that they could show you how much they loved you! They were your parents! Of course they loved you! Although, clearly that love didn't go both ways."

His voice was deadly, "Of course I loved them. They were my parents." His eyes were haunted, and he was shaking, but Lucy didn't notice.

"Right, yeah. But you didn't respect them enough to actually send them a note telling them you were still alive occasionally? And you didn't respect them enough to actually come to their funeral? I mean, I know they didn't mean anything to you anymore because they weren't who you wanted them to be, but I thought you at least had a little bit of respect – "

"I know," he interrupted. "I know. I'm sorry."

"You are?" she asked quietly. He nodded.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I can't do this."

And he ran.

_Star star star_

Lily sat on the couch in the Gryffindor common room, her knees pulled up to her body, her chin leaning on them, staring into the fire.

"Hey," said a voice. She looked up, and smiled slightly to see James standing there. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure, go ahead," she said softly.

The two sat in amiable silence, both deep in thoughts. Lily noticed that James kept on glancing up at the portrait hole every few minutes.

"I'm worried about her too," Lily said quietly to him.

He looked at her sadly. "I just feel so bad for her. I can't believe something like this would happen."

"I know," she murmured. "I've met her parents. They were...so lovely. Why would anyone ever want to hurt them?"

They both lapsed into silence, staring at the fire, thinking hard. Then, without saying a word, James took Lily's hand. To his surprise, she didn't resist, but held on tightly, and after a moment, she leaned her head on his shoulder. He smiled down at her gently, and she closed her eyes in contentment.

_Star star star_

"What on earth just happened?" demanded Sirius, his expression confused.

Lucy burst into tears. "I don't know! He just...he just, turned up so late...and I couldn't believe it!"

"I know, I know," he said, pulling her to him. "I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just confused."

"I know," she sobbed, "I just...I don't understand why he did that. I-I mean, why did he turn up so late? He seemed...genuinely upset that they were...g-gone."

"Yeah," he said quietly, "Well, I think I'm going to take you back home now."

She just nodded, still crying softly. "Do you want to say goodbye to anyone?" he asked. She shook her head, murmuring to just get her out. Sirius looked around apologetically, saw all the sympathetic smiles, and took her outside to the point where Professor McGonagall said she would meet them. Thankfully, she was a little early, and smiled sadly at the couple when they came into view. She put a hand on Lucy's shoulder before apparating the three of them to Hogsmeade.

When Sirius guided Lucy into the common room, they were met with Remus, James, Lily and Peter. As soon as they came in, they all took turns in hugging a now non-responsive Lucy. Then Lily wordlessly took her hand and led her up to the girl's common room. Nobody noticed the smile James gave to Lily, and the blush that appeared on her cheeks as they left.

Sirius sighed as he sat down, loving the warmth of the fire.

"How was it, mate?" asked James, sitting next to him.

"Depressing, but what do you expect from a funeral from your girlfriend's parents?" he said sarcastically. Then he shook his head. "Sorry, man. It was just really...tough."

James smiled sadly.

"Her brother turned up over an hour late," said Sirius.

"You're kidding."

"Nope," he said, "And Lucy totally just let him have it. She yelled at him right in the middle of the church hall."

"What?" Remus said, his eyebrows high. "That doesn't seem very like Lucy."

"You should have seen her. She was so angry." Sirius sighed again. "But seriously. You didn't _see _him. You could _see_ the guilt in his eyes."

"Why's he so guilty?" asked Peter, looking confused. But then again, that wasn't so unusual.

"I have no idea." said Sirius, his past bewilderment again on his face. "I just don't understand that guy."

_Hi guys...eem, I'm so sorry about how long that this has taken me to update. Seriously. What with the mental amount of school work I've been having thrown at me, Christmas shopping, snow (!), then that wind we had in Scotland yesterday :L The name of which I find absolutely hilarious. (And no, it's not the actual name...), the school play rehearsals, then the actual play and everything else, I've had like no time! Which also explains why this is so short. Anyway, updates really aren't going to be as frequent as normal, so don't kill me! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as usual, please review =D _


	12. Chapter 11 Tasks and Tests

_I still don't own Harry Potter..._

Tasks and Tests

Lucy sat down with a slight sigh next to Sirius and put her head on his shoulder. They were in the Great Hall, at lunch time on a Saturday in the middle of the Easter holidays. Everyone else was strangely absent, but Lucy and Sirius were almost glad of that, so that they could discuss this alone.

"How was it?" he asked.

"Well...They left the house to me, so I have somewhere to live. And seeing as I'm of age, I'm allowed to live there on my own once we leave Hogwarts. So that's good I suppose" She shook her head. "They left me quite a bit of money too, so I'm fine on that front."

"But?" Sirius asking, sensing there was one soon.

"They also left Joe quite a bit of money." She shook her head, "It's not that I'm jealous or anything, it's just that they don't know where he is, so they've just shoved his money into his Gringotts account, even though there hasn't been any withdrawals in a while."

"So, you gonna live in that house when you leave school?" he asked.

She nodded. "I might have Lily to stay for a while though. I don't think I'll like it all on my own."

He smiled, "I think she'd love to."

"Well, I have to study," she said with a laugh, getting to her feet and pulling her bag over her shoulder. She gave him a sweet smile, "Coming?"

"Study?" he asked, remaining seated. "What is that word?"

Lucy laughed, "You know I can see through that facade...in a couple of weeks you'll hardly remember what life was like outside the library."

"Never!" exclaimed Sirius, jumping to his feet and backing away from her, his hands held in a mock surrender position. "Never will I be seen in that place!" he exclaimed. Lucy just laughed and rolled her eyes.

"How about I make you?" she said, trying to ignore the staring first years who seemed to think this was some sort of fascinating show.

"No!" he said, running out of the hall comically. Laughing, she chased after him, and managed to catch up with him before he got away – though, she could tell that he wasn't going as fast as he could. She hugged him tightly. "I'll see you later," she said with a smile.

Upon getting to the library, she quickly found Lily sitting at a desk with a bag on the seat next to her. "Hey," she said quietly when she reached the table, and Lily smiled and moved the bag away so she could sit down. "How's the studying going?"

"Irritating," Lily whispered, "I hate studying."

"At least here I'm not constantly procrastinating. At home I would be doing everything I could to avoid this."

Lily laughed quietly, "I know, same. Ugh, I hate exams. They're so annoying – I mean, really, most of it's just memorising pointless information...that's not testing your knowledge, that's just testing your memory!"

She smiled, nodding at her whisper rant. She'd clearly been holding that in for a while. "Exams are stupid." She agreed quietly. "I'm going to get some books."

She just nodded, and she got up and looked for some decent Transfiguration books. While trying to decide between _Advanced Shape-shifting _and _Advanced_ _Summoning – Going the Extra Mile_ when she heard hushed voices in the aisle parallel to the one she was in. Now normally. Lucy wasn't really one to spy on other people, but it was either that or study, and she liked procrastinating. Looking through the little gap above the top of the rows of books, she saw the backs of three heads.

"...are we going to playing this game for?" demanded the voice of the one in the middle, "I'm sick of waiting for a decision!"

"Quiet down," said the one on the left, his head moving from side to side, his voice paranoid. "Look, we don't have much time now. We need to convince the little idiot _before_ the end of the year; otherwise we'll be in for it."

"Speaking of which," said the middle one, his voice still hushed. "Did you get it yet?"

She heard a slight rustling, but couldn't see what was happening. Someone let out a hiss of awe, and none of them were saying anything at all. Lucy was about to quietly leave when the one on the right piped up: "When are you getting yours?"

"As soon as we've convinced that little blood traitor. Shouldn't take too long, I guess?"

"We better hope not."

"Why does he even want him?"

"Nobody knows," said one of them ominously, "All I've heard is that he's keeping very quiet about it...my father said that it was just a feeling he had...and it shouldn't be too hard, you know how low his self confidence is, with good reason."

The middle one let out a harsh laugh.

"Come on, let's go. He's clearly not coming. We'll try and catch up with him later."

Lucy sucked in a breath and hurried back through the rows of books to the table. Lily looked up and raised her eyebrows.

"What?" asked Lucy, slightly out of breath, pulling a quill out of her bag, which she had left lying on the table.

"I thought you were getting a book?"

She groaned and put her head on her desk.

"I'm clearly not meant to study today," she said, her voice muffled. Lily just laughed, and pushed a book to her friend.

_Star star star_

James was sitting in the Common Room, actually studying for once. He knew that not many people had noticed, but he felt that he had grown up a lot over the past year. A year ago, he wouldn't be caught dead studying like this, but this year he realised that this was important. If he wanted to become an auror, then he would have to work hard for it, and this was a good enough place to start.

Lily saw James alone at a table by the window. It was getting late, and the room was getting quite dim, the fire sending light flickering across the room. His messy black hair was getting quite long, and it was falling into his face in a way that looked adorable. Lily knew in that moment that she couldn't deny how she felt for him any longer, and she slowly walked over to him, her hands shaking and her insides twisting at what she was about to tell him.

"Hey," she said quietly, sitting next to him.

He looked up, his face surprised and smiled when he saw her. "Hey Lily," he said softly. "How are you?"

For some reason Lily blushed, and she smiled at him, feeling a little less nervous. "Fine...I-I was wondering if you'd like to...take a walk round the lake with me?"

James looked even more surprised, but he nodded anyway, "After curfew, Miss Evans?" he said teasingly, "I never thought you had it in you,"

Lily giggled, and the two left the common room quietly.

The lake was still and everything was quiet. It was a beautiful summer night, and all the stars were shining down on them as they walked towards the tree that they had all hung out at so often. Anybody watching could see the couple sit next to each other, facing the lake with their backs to the castle. They would see the two conversing, and after a while James hugging her.

He was surprisingly reserved on the walk back up to the castle, merely taking her hand in a quiet claim to his new girlfriend. People staying up late to study that night would see the two walking into the Common Room still holding hands – him kissing her goodnight on the cheek. They would hear Lily's friend's squeals of excitement, and James' woops of joy in his dormitory.

One thing any innocent observer would notice, despite the slightly unexpected nature of the new relationship, was the joy on each of the two faces, and everyone who was watching at the time would swear in later years that they had been convinced that those two would be together forever.

_Star star star_

Joe was feeling a slight sense of déjà vu as he walked down the halls with Bellatrix, yet again. She was glaring at him with resentment, almost as if she was blaming him for daring to complete a task successfully. He felt like shrinking back from her glare, but he didn't want to look like a coward in front of her. Bellatrix had been the year below him at school, but he knew exactly what she was capable of...he had seen it.

"You can stop looking at me like that," he said with a smirk, his tone arrogant, "I'm in for good, and there's not really anything you can do about it."

Surprisingly, Bellatrix didn't say anything in retaliation. She just glared, and then stiffly pointed at the black door that he recognised from the previous time he was here. When he was given his last task. He shivered unconsciously. He still felt immense guilt from what he had done...he still woke up at night, seeing the terror on his parents face. He could still hear them pleading, still he could see the betrayal in his father's eyes, the grief in his mother's. He remembered the funeral...his little sister had yelled at him...if she only knew. If she had known what he had done, then she would hate him even more than she already did.

Joe knocked carefully on the door, trying not to make it too tentative, but also not arrogantly strong. A year ago he would have scoffed at being so obsessive and perfect about these things, but know...well, he had seen into the mind of the Dark Lord and knew that if he didn't obsess about them, the Dark Lord would, and he could be punished for the smallest of things.

"Enter," he heard the hiss that made him shiver. He saw Bellatrix smirk before whipping her hair over her shoulder and marching away. He sighed, ashamed that she had seen even a little weakness from him.

He walked into the large, black room carefully. The walls and floor and ceiling were all the same polished black colour. One large chair sat towards the end of the room, and it reminded Joe of a large throne. He imagined that this was the effect that the Dark Lord was trying to get across...as if he were a King, and everybody else were his servants. In effect, that is what they were.

He bowed stiffly to his master, and did not look up at the Dark Lord, waiting for instruction to do so. He knew that he was surveying his every action, looking for the smallest sign of disrespect. He had his hands clasped behind his back, and his head was still bowed.

"Earsdon," the Dark Lord hissed, "I was pleased with the completion of your task. Done very effectively. I hope you did not find it too...hard?"

Joe decided now would be an appropriate time to look up, and he made sure not to flinch in fear at the sight of the man – if man he could be called. "No, my Lord."

"Good, good. I hope you found some enjoyment in the task?"

"It is always a pleasure to serve the Dark Lord," he said carefully. To his surprise, his master laughed.

"Quite the diplomat, aren't we?" he smiled, the skin on his face stretching. "What house were you in, again?"

Joe thought it was odd how obsessed the man was with Hogwarts. He had left it many years ago, and yet, he seemed to hold on to the place obsessively...almost as if it held sentimental value for him. Almost as if he cared. "Ravenclaw, my Lord."

He nodded, "Interesting. Now, I have another task for you to complete, seeing as you managed to do the last one so well."

Even though Voldemort was almost phrasing this like a question, Joe knew that once again, he had no choice in the matter.

"Anything, my Lord."

"That's what I like to hear." He said, almost pleasantly, but Joe felt a sense of dread from the malice in the Dark Lord's eyes, and he waited to hear what his master had to say.

He wished he hadn't.

_Hi guys =) Sorry it's been so long, been busy with Christmas and stuff! Hope you all had a good one, and got nice things and stuff =) Happy new year for tonight as well! Hope you're doing something nice =) I hope you liked this chapter also...it's a little bit of a filler, we'll be getting some action next chapter I promise =) I've not been getting very many reviews recently, which is quite sad. I don't want to hassle, because I don't write for the reviews, but it's always encouraging when you do, and it helps me to continue writing...so if you can, please take a second to tell me what you think! Quick shout out to _indigofrisbee _who has been reviewing recently when nobody else has, so thank you for sticking with me! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you soon =) _


	13. Chapter 12 Defying Gravity

_I don't own Harry Potter._

Defying Gravity

"So," Lucy said sitting down on Lily's bed. Lily moved her piles and piles of textbooks and notes with a squeak so that they weren't crumpled in the process. Lucy continued her thought without paying any attention to this. "Are you and James going on a date for Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah."

"Awesome!" Lucy exclaimed. "You know, I totally saw this coming,"

"Yes, I know Lucy."

"I mean, I could tell. It was soooo obvious you liked each other."

"Well, yes, he did ask me out every other day."

"And I could tell that you liked him to, you know? I just knew."

"Yes, Lucy."

"It's so exciting."

"Mm-hmm..."

"I can't believe you're finally going out!"

"I thought you saw it coming."

"Oh, I did. Of course I did."

"Okay, Lucy."

"This is so exciting!"

"Yes, Lucy. Can I go back to my studying now?"

"Fiiiiiine..." Lucy said dramatically, annoyed as she had been attempting to procrastinate. "But first, can we all meet in the Three Broomsticks in the afternoon sometime? Like, at three or something? It'll be so much fun!"

"Sure. Can you go annoy your boyfriend now?"

She sighed loudly, but bounced up and skipped downstairs. "Have fun studying!" she yelled up the stairs.

"You should be too!" she yelled back.

"But...I don't want to!" came the reply.

The next day dawned bright, and Lucy woke up feeling sad. It took her a few moments to figure out why, until she realised suddenly as she was doing her make-up. This was their last trip to Hogsmeade at Hogwarts.

Sighing, she realised how quickly this year had passed. It was already Easter time, and so many things had happened over this year that she hadn't had time to notice how fast it was going. She hadn't had time to appreciate the school she went to.

Looking at her face in the mirror she wondered what her life would have been like if she hadn't gotten that letter all those years ago. She would have gone to a muggle school and learnt about English and Maths and Geography...she would have had different friends and cared about different things. She might have had different tastes in clothing and loved different people. If Hogwarts and magic didn't exist...she might still have her brother, her parents.

But she knew she didn't want to think like that. Magic had taken so much away from her – her family, being the main thing. It had taken away a more simple life, in which she would have been naive of the horrors that this world contained. But magic had also given her so much...friends, happiness, somewhere where she belonged...Sirius. It may have taken away her family, but it also gave her a new one. Lily, Sirius, the rest of the Marauders, the rest of Gryffindor tower and half of seventh year and a few others...they were her family.

Thinking about it, as selfish as it made her feel...she wouldn't change it for the world.

"Lily..." she said, as she wandered into their dorm from the bathroom, her feet bare.

"Yeah?" she said, looking up from where she was surveying her entire wardrobe. Lucy knew she was trying to work out something to wear, but decided to ignore it as she wanted to get this sorted now that she was thinking about after Hogwarts.

"I was wondering...see after Hogwarts?"

Lily nodded, looking sad at the thought of leaving, but also intrigued about my question.

"Do you want to come and live with...me? 'Cause I have a whole house to myself, and I'm gonna miss seeing you all the time, and I really don't want to be on my own in such a big house, but I mean, you don't have to, I know you have your family and you have other friends and stuff, but I think it would be really fun and – "

"Lucy!" she exclaimed, her eyes alight with excitement, "Stop rambling."

She smiled nervously, anxious to hear her reply. "So...?"

"Of course I want to!" she shrieked, hugging her tightly, "But I just need to check with my parents..."

"Obviously," She said with a grin. "You really want to?"

"Yes, you little idiot!" she laughed, "How did you expect me to live without you?"

They both then burst out laughing and Lucy grinned happily.

"So," she said, once they had calmed down, "What are you wearing?"

_Star star star_

Later, Sirius and Lucy were walking hand in hand down the streets of Hogsmeade towards the Three Broomsticks, idly chatting about the upcoming Quidditch match, and whether their chances were good or not. Sirius was insistent that they would definitely win, but Lucy was not so sure. It was the last game of the season, and it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

"Come ooon, have you seen the team that the Slytherins have got together this year?" he said with a laugh, "Ravenclaw totally smashed them out the water. And we beat Ravenclaw, so they don't stand a chance."

"I think you're forgetting that the Slytherins are all massive." She said with a smile. "And so were the Ravenclaws."

"So are we!" exclaimed Sirius, looking offended.

"Yeah, but we don't play off that angle. The Slytherins do."

"That's all they've got going for them." said Sirius with a laugh. "Their size and the fact they all clearly buy their way onto the team. I mean really, there is no way they all suddenly rustled up the money to get the new Cleansweep."

"I just think you're underestimating them, that's all." she said, shrugging.

Sirius was about to respond before something caught his eye. He smiled, his eyes twinkling and nudged his girlfriend.

"What?" she asked, looking around her. He pointed to the entrance of the Three Broomsticks.

"Look," he said, still grinning. Walking into the pub was James and Lily, smiling and laughing, hands tightly clasped.

"Awww," she sighed her smile widening.

"I know," he said. "We were meant to be meeting them in here, right?"

"Let's give them a couple of minutes before we go in," Lucy laughed, and Sirius nodded, leading her over to the side of the street to wait for a while. They watched people pass by quickly. It was sad how worried everyone looked, lines of worry marking their features.

"I've been worrying about Peter recently," Sirius said. She looked up at him questioningly. "He's been quieter recently, and he hasn't been eating as much as normal. He says there's nothing wrong, but I dunno..."

"Maybe he's just worried about exams." She suggested. They started in two weeks and quite a few people had already been sent down to the Hospital Wing for calming draughts. The teachers had decided on moving forward the last Hogsmeade trip to now because they wanted to give them all a bit of a break to calm them all down. "They're not called N.E.W.T.'s for nothing, after all."

"I know," he said, sighing. "It's probably nothing, but I just worry about him."

"Maybe...maybe he's just upset about leaving." He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "I mean, come on. Everybody takes something out of Hogwarts. I mean, look at Remus – if he hadn't found you guys, who knows how much harder his life would be right now? You found the guys as well, and if it weren't for them, well, you might never have found the courage to leave your family. We've all found a home at Hogwarts, and leaving really sucks."

"What about you?" he asked, looking out at the people running by. "What have you found at Hogwarts?"

"Friends," she said, "Lily, Mary, Alice. James, Remus and Peter. I've found things that I'm really good at here, rather than subjects that I was all right at in the muggle world. And, well...I found you." She blushed, but he squeezed her hand and grinned at her.

"I love you, you know that right?" he said, looking right into her eyes. Surprise coursed through her veins...he'd never said that before. But, at the same time, she realised that she'd known it for a long time. "You were part of what I found at Hogwarts. I wouldn't change that for anything."

"I love you too," she said, her cheeks feeling sore from the massive grin on her face. He kissed her quickly.

"Come on," he said, "You know Lily will be getting irritated at us if we're late," He got to his feet and grabbed her hand to pull her up. She got up and brushed the dirt of her trousers.

"You ready-" Sirius was cut off by a blood-curdling scream. Jumping into motion, both teens whipped their wands out and surveyed the area.

"What was that?" asked Lucy. Nobody answered. Everyone in the street seemed to have stopped, panic overtaking their features. A scream wasn't much – people screamed all the time. But these were dark times, and the smallest sign of something being out of the ordinary always terrified people into action. Silence reigned in the small village, and everyone seemed to be waiting for something.

A huge bang suddenly rocked the little village, and everyone seemed to burst into action. It was absolute chaos. People were running, screaming, adults were apparating away to safer places. Sirius grabbed Lucy's hand, and shouted something at her through the noise.

"What?" she yelled, unable to hear what he was saying.

"STAY WITH ME!" he roared, and she nodded, fear gripping her. Together, they ran to the closest building, but someone suddenly blocked their path. He was wearing long black robes, and a death eater mask. Gathering her nerves together, she threw a stunning spell at him, which he reflected immediately. She had to duck to miss it, and Sirius began to duel the Death Eater, using his momentary distraction to his advantage.

Scared stiff, Lucy stood on the sidelines of their duel, unable to think of anything to do to help, before other death eaters came along, and she was thrown into battle with them. She was terrified, but as she saw the green light coming towards her she was thrown into the mindset of battle. Throwing herself to the ground, she dodged the deadly curse before jumping to her feet again and firing a stunning spell at her opponent. It was hard – the man was more experienced than her and his spells were more dangerous. But she was younger and her reactions were faster, so she managed to catch him with a tripping spell. She whipped her head round to check on Sirius while he recovered, and he was engaged in battle with another death eater, so she returned to hers, throwing a stunning spell at him.

He dodged it, and managed to hit her with a cutting curse on the arm. She screamed and lost focus for a moment, tears stinging her eyes before forcing herself back into action. For some reason he had not used her distraction to his advantage, and seemed to be standing there, waiting for her to recover.

She began to fight again, the colours of their spells flying between them. At one point Sirius and his opponent joined in on their fight, and the two duels became one.

"What are you doing?" she heard one of the death eaters yell. "Just do it!"

She didn't hear the reply, but Sirius had managed to stun the death eater who had shouted out while he was distracted. Grinning with satisfaction, the two didn't notice their last opponent point his wand to the wall behind them and mutter a spell. It didn't seem to do much, and before they knew it he was running.

"What the...?" Sirius muttered, scratching his head. They had been backed into an alleyway, and the sounds of battle could still be heard from the main street, but they were fading. The crackling of fire could be heard.

"Sirius," Lucy gasped, hugging him tightly. "What just happened? Why did he leave?"

"I don't know." He said when he let her go, looking around, his wand still carefully in front of him. "Maybe –" A creaking above them was heard, and before they could react or run or _blink_, the building around them seemed to explode. The last thing Lucy knew before they were both submerged in the rubble was her own scream and Sirius' hand grasping her own tightly.

_Starstarstar_

James grabbed Lily tightly and held her for all it was worth. She sobbed into his shoulder. "It's all right," he whispered again and again, but he too, was absolutely terrified.

"Mr Potter! Miss Evans! Oh, thank gracious you are both all right," Professor McGonagall ran towards them, her hair escaping her tight bun.

"Professor," said James, getting to his feet and dragging Lily with her, "He was here. Voldemort. He was here."

Her eyes widened visibly and her mouth thinned, but other than that she did not look surprised. "We should have seen this coming." she said quietly, and the young couple were not sure whether they were meant to have heard her or not. "Did you...did you talk to him?"

"He told us to join him," James said, his voice shaking. "We said no..."

"You defied He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" she said, her voice shrill. "How are you still alive?"

He shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well." She said, as if trying to pull herself together. "Well, we shall discuss these things later. Would you two mind trying to find any injured and bringing them to the medical area being set up?"

"That's fine," said Lily quietly and McGonagall turned to go. "Professor –" she said before she could leave. "Our friends. Have you...?"

"Mr Pettigrew and Mr Lupin are both fine."

"And Sirius and Lucy?" said James quickly, desperate for news.

McGonagall sighed and surveyed the two of them, before pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "We have not managed to locate them, as of now."

_Yes, I am aware that I have not updated since Christmas time. I'm so so sorry...I've been incredibly busy with exams and such...so yeah. Sorry about that. But I've updated now! =D Happy Easter! Yay! I love Easter! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are, as always, welcomed =D_


	14. Chapter 13 The Calm Before the Storm

_I really don't own Harry Potter._

The "Calm" Before the Storm

"Sirius!"

"Lucy!"

"_Sirius! Lucy! Where are you?"_

The calls reverberated through the streets of Hogsmeade, reaching into a small alley off the main street. It wasn't used for much, previously only holding a few bins and old storage boxes – it was a bit of a tip, to be honest. However, none of that remained as the small alley was now completely covered in ash and rubble. It was the remains of this alley to which Lucy woke up to.

Underneath heaps of this debris, it took Lucy a minute to work out what was going on. But when she realised what was covering her, she absently wondered how she was still alive. That was when she felt the pain. She gasped slightly, and closed her eyes, trying to assess the situation. As far as she knew, she was alone. She couldn't remember what had happened before now, and as she lay there she felt tears fill her eyes as she tried to work out what to do.

"_LUCY!" _the yell reached her. Someone was calling for her. Desperately she tried to move, but she was stuck down by the rocks around her.

"Help..." she whispered.

_ "Sirius?" _the voice was coming closer.

"Help!" Even to her ears, her voice sounded small and pathetic.

"Where are you?" The voice was further away. In her desperation, Lucy gathered as much strength as she could in her suppressed lungs and yelled. She tried to use words, but it really just came out as a strangled wail.

She then heard a shout and running footsteps, coming towards her. She could have cried with relief when she heard a voice say her name, "Lucy – Lucy are you there?"

"James," she whimpered, realising who it was. There was shuffling as he pushed rubble away and suddenly she could see light.

"Lucy," he whispered. She smiled, and then everything went black.

_Starstarstar_

Hours later, or at least that was what she guessed by the dim light that was covering the Hospital Wing, she woke to hear hushed voices. Blinking the tiredness out of her eyes, she looked around her to see her friends all gathered round the bed next to hers, talking quietly to the occupant of said bed. As she tried to sit up, she suddenly registered that she ached – all over.

"Ow," she muttered, catching the attention of the others.

"Lucy!" Lily exclaimed, and suddenly James, Remus and Lily were all by her side. Remus helped her sit up as Peter ran to alert Madame Pomfrey.

"It's good to see you awake," said James.

"Thanks. Where's Sirius?" she asked, worried. Lily smiled, and gestured to the bed next to her. Sirius grinned from his own hospital bed.

"Hello, love."

"Sirius!" she exclaimed, wanting to run to him, but James quickly held her down before she could jump up.

"Yeah, no, you're not allowed up." Lucy looked up at the boy who was pretty much her brother with puppy dog eyes. He groaned. "Sirius, make her stoooooop!

Sirius just laughed. "Hey, I'm not the one holding her down."

"But Madam Pomfrey will _murder _me!"

"Tell me, Mr Potter, why I am going to murder you?" came the voice of Madam Pomfrey coming over, her arms laden with potions, Peter behind her.

James jumped and physically whitened. "No reason!"

She raised her eyebrows, but didn't comment, simply busying herself by forcing various potions down Lucy's throat and then doing the same to Sirius. He grimaced, but winked at Lucy, who giggled quietly.

_Starstarstar_

"This is it."

Lucy looked up at Lily, who was currently standing in front of the mirror, staring at herself. She went to stand beside her, fixing her robes as she went.

"Our last day of Hogwarts." She said sadly.

"How did it go so fast?" said Lily, her eyes already shimmering with unshed tears.

"I don't even know." Said Lucy, "But don't start crying! Not yet. We have to wait until _at least_ lunchtime to do that!"

"Okay." Said Lily sniffing slightly, picking up an old school shirt. "I'm gonna get my shirt signed by everyone. I know it's not a tradition at Hogwarts...but if I'd not been a witch that's what i would have been doing...and I dunno...I just want something to remember us with."

Lucy smiled widely, "That's a fantastic idea. You should get everyone else to do it too, I'm sure they'd love it!"

She nodded as Lucy went to dig an old shirt out of her almost-packed trunk. "I'll go tell the boys!"

"Don't forget to tell Mary and Alice!"

So that was how all the Gryffindor seventh years found themselves clutching graffiti covered shirts that morning at breakfast. Forgetting to eat, they were all intent on perfecting their messages to each other. The seventh years from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw caught onto the idea and soon joined in, though the Slytherins just scoffed and went back to their breakfast. Some of the teachers even came down to see what was going on, and ended up being forced to sign the majority of the shirts.

"Thanks Professor!" said Lucy once Professor McGonagall had finished her message. "And...thanks for being such a great teacher over the past seven years. It's been great having you there for us as we've grown up." Lily nodded fervently from beside her. Their Professor gave them one of her rare smiles, and said: "Well, your year definitely livened up the school, didn't it?" she laughed, looking fondly over to the Marauders who were currently writing and drawing on each other's faces. "And the honour was all mine girls. I loved having you two in my class, and it will sadden me greatly not to have you next year. But, I don't think this is the last I'll be seeing of you!" she exclaimed knowingly.

"What – " started Lucy, but McGonagall was already on her way to talk to a Ravenclaw student.

"Well that was weird." Lily said.

The day was emotional, to say the least. And she didn't make it until lunch before she started crying, but she _did_ make it past first period, which she thought was an achievement. After dinner that night, during which Dumbledore announced that Ravenclaw won the house cup (Figures, Lucy thought. With the Marauders in their house they were never going to win, and Ravenclaw were always getting points because they were so clever.) , Dumbledore asked the Marauders plus Lucy, Lily, Alice and Mary to come to his office. Confused, the eight of them followed him, where they found Professor McGonagall and Alastor (aka Mad-Eye) Moody waiting for them.

"Have a seat," he said when they get in, summoning the extra chairs needed. "Sherbet lemon?" Everyone except Sirius and James refused, both of whom liked overly excited at the thought.

Once everybody had settled down, the headmaster opened his mouth to speak. "I'm going to arrive straight at the point." He said. "You are all very much aware of the war going on at the moment. At Hogwarts we try to keep you as safe as we possibly can, we try to make it something of a sanctuary amongst the trouble. But you are leaving these halls tomorrow for the last time, and thus will be entering this world of danger out there. And I am not going to lie to you – you are all very bright students who I trust with all my heart. But you would be a great asset to the Dark side – you must be aware of this."

Confused, Lucy listened, her face paling. And, unnoticed by anyone else, sitting between James and Remus, Peter Pettigrew shifted a little, his ears perking. _A great asset to the Dark side..._

Dumbledore sighed and, after getting to his feet, walked to the window and gazed out at the calm sky. He turned back to them, and in a relatively loud voice, told them, "A time _will_ come when you will have to choose a side. With all my heart, I wish that you would not have to choose, but alas, it is not so. Either you will join Voldemort, or he will hunt you. I do not say this to scare you – all of you are already aware of what he can and will do. You have been affected by this war already, though I wish it were not so." Lucy looked down at her lap, thinking of her parents, her brother, who had been stolen from her by one evil man. "I have asked you here tonight to show you one option. There are a group of us, called the Order of the Phoenix, who are devoted to bringing down Voldemort. We would like you to join us. Do not feel pressured to, as this is not a decision to be taken lightly. But I see in you all a potential to do _great_ things, and I wish for them to be used in a way that can help the world.

I have left you with much to think of. I will not ask you to answer now – I will give you time to sleep on it. But please have an answer for me by tomorrow morning."

Dismissed, the teenagers nodded and left. Lucy found herself at Sirius' side who whispered in her ear, "Take a walk with me,".

"Sirius, it's nearly curfew."

"What are they gonna do, give us a detention?"

She laughed, "Okay then."

The two of them said their goodbyes and made their way down to the lake, hands clasped. Lucy noticed Sirius giving James a look, but could not work out what it could be.

"Do you think you'll join?" Sirius asked her as they walked down the hill. "The Order, I mean."

She nodded determinedly. "Yes. That man took away my family. I will do anything to stop him from doing that to anyone else."

He smiled, "I love you." He said.

"I love you too," she said, surprised. They had reached the lake by now, and he stopped and turned to face her.

"I know that we're young," he said, seemingly nervous. "I know that there's a war on. But I really do love you. And I plan on loving you and looking after you for the rest of my life, if that's all right with you."

Lucy suddenly saw where this might be headed and she stared at him in shock.

Sirius took a deep breath, and pulled a box out of his pocked as he got down on one knee.

"Lucy Chalke – will you marry me?"

_Hi guys! I'm so sorry it's been so long – exams, blah blah blah. It's been a busy time of year! But hopefully I'll be getting a few updates out in the next two weeks, because I'm on holiday and won't be going away until then. And sorry this was so short, and if there are any errors, but I wanted to get this out to you guys as quickly as I could! I really hope you enjoyed it, I know not much happened, buuut...=) Please review, it would mean the world to me! =) _


	15. Chapter 14 Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

"Can I explain the ring?" Sirius asked softly, squeezing the hand he was holding, which had the aforementioned ring decorating it. He and Lucy were lying on the grass beside the lake, staring up at the stars. The night was clear, and Lucy was sure that there were more stars than she had ever seen before. They could see the cloudy looking milky-way stretching across the sky, and even though the air was chilly the moment was so perfect that neither wanted to move.

Lucy smiled, lifting up their entwined hands to admire the small diamond sparkling on the

platinum ring around her finger. "Yes," she murmured, "If it needs to be explained."

"I'm not exactly sure where," he said, pointing up at the sky with his free hand. "But somewhere up in that sky is a constellation called Centaurus. And somewhere in that constellation is a star called Lucy."

"What?" she gasped, a smile lighting up her face.

"And this star," he carried on," Is made from pure diamond."

"You're making this up!" she exclaimed, "That sounds impossible!"

He lifted her hand in his, sitting up and pulling her up with her. "Impossible?" he said. "Is anything really impossible?"

"What are you talking about?" she said with a laugh.

"Well," he said, his voice filled with almost hysterical excitement. "Here I am, sitting with the most beautiful girl in the world – who ten years ago I didn't even know existed. I'm out of my parents house for good and the girl sitting next to me is wearing a ring I gave her and has agreed to spend the rest of her life with me...Call me crazy - "

"Crazy." She interrupted, almost out of instinct, and he smiled, barely acknowledging it.

"But," he continued, "It seems to me that nothing's impossible. Heck, ten years ago you didn't even know magic existed. Wouldn't you have said that _magic_ was impossible?"

"Okay, you've made your point."

"You're the most beautiful star in the sky, Lucy Chalke."

With a massive grin on her face, Lucy pointed at another star in the sky. "And that's Sirius...the brightest star in the sky."

And then she kissed him.

(_A/N Now, I do realise that the Lucy star was only discovered to be diamond in about 2004 time and this is set way before that, but I found this out this afternoon and couldn't not put it into the story. It was too much of a coincidence and I really wanted to share it with you guys =) )_

_Change in time._

"Got everything?" Lucy asked her best friend of six years now.

"Yeah." said Lily, trying not to look too sad as she pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. "I can't believe we're leaving."

"Me neither." Lucy was torn between emotions. Part of her was, obviously, sad to be leaving Hogwarts, her home for the last six years. But obviously the other part of her was so excited for her future now that she was _engaged. _ The two of them looked around the room sadly, before Lily suddenly laughed.

"You know how in muggle films there's always that really cheesy bit where they go to the door, look around the room, sigh and then flick the light switch?"

Lucy nodded, remembering this occurrence well.

"I just had the urge to do it. But we don't have light switches."

The two girls laughed, and then joined hands. They walked over to the door, the room unnaturally tidy compared to how it had been for most of the years they had been there. Lucy remembered their first day in that room, and thought about how she had grown up in this room. She had gone through puberty here, she had giggled with Lily, had arguments, made friends and talked about Sirius and James more than the two boys would ever know, so that their heads would not inflate any further. She realised that even though their Hogwarts story was concluding, another group of little girls were going to come to this very room and do it all over again. This very moment, some of them were getting excited, imagining what it was to live in this place – and some of them didn't even know they were magic. They just felt sort of weird, out of place...unbeknownst to them, they would soon find where they belonged.

Suddenly Lucy was a bit glad that they were leaving. Because it gave these little girls the chance to discover the world that she loved.

Wiping a tear from her eye and sniffing loudly, the two girls looked at each other, and before turning away and leaving the dorm forever, they raised their wands, and, in unison, they both said: _"Nox."_

Soon after, they found themselves sitting with the infamous Marauders, for the last time, in Dumbledore's office, as he sat surveying the group of teenagers in front of them.

"Well, I have to say, I require an answer from you all now." Nobody asked what about.

"I'll be joining," said James quickly. "There's no way I'm just sitting here and allowing that man to just do what he wants."

"Me too," said Sirius.

"Of course, I will." Lucy said. Lily nodded, "So will I."

With a slightly nervous look on his face, Peter also agreed.

"Me too," said Remus quietly. Sirius gave his friend a slightly weird look, but nobody said anything about it.

"Excellent!" said their headmaster. "Well, I shall owl you all about your induction and first meeting, but it is now time to go home! And I shall see you very soon, do not fret."

"Thanks Headmaster," said James, speaking for them all.

As they all turned to go, he added: "Oh, and Lucy, Sirius – congratulations."

Lucy stared at him, shocked that he'd noticed so quickly. She had kept the ring on, but nobody had said anything so far, bigger things on their mind. "Thanks professor," said Sirius, with a massive grin, before he lea his fiancé out of the room.

Dumbledore sat down, his eyes twinkling as he heard a very feminine scream uttered from the teenagers who had left the room and had undoubtedly discovered the sparkling jewel on Lucy's finger.

_Hallo =) Sorry about how short this is, but things are going to pick up a bit next chapter, this is just sort of a filler =) Hope you're all well! (I'm not gonna make excuses for how long this has taken me to get up, it's been a very busy year =P)_


	16. Chapter 15 - Life After School

_I don't own Harry Potter =) _

Chapter 15 - Life after School

"I'm loyal to my friends."

"Of course you are," the handsome, dark-haired boy said. He placed his left arm on the wall beside them, leaning casually against it. To an outsider the stance didn't look at all threatening, but Peter Pettigrew knew he was trapped. Standing in the dark corner deep in the dungeons minutes before he was meant to be at the last breakfast of term, he wondered what they would do if he said no. The other two Slytherin boys were standing on the right of Sirius' little brother and he knew that he had been effectively backed into a physical and metaphorical corner. "But Peter, you can always make new friends."

"Wh..what? I, I don't want new friends!" He spluttered, his watery blue eyes still innocent.

"Why not?" the one with the dark brown eyes asked. His hair was so short that Peter thought he might be able to see his scalp. "We've seen how they treat you. They don't appreciate you."

"Yes they do, they're my friends!" he said indignantly, straightening his back to reach his full height and hoping that he appeared intimidating.

The three of them all laughed. "Face it, Pettigrew, they think you're pathetic."

"I'm not pathetic!" Even he knew he sounded half-hearted.

_"We_ know that." Regulus stated. "We're just saying that they don't. Just think...where would they be without you? Would they be upset? I'm not saying they'd be happier without you...but do you think they'd really...care?"

"Of course they would, they're my friends." But with each admission, Peter was losing confidence.

"Just think about it. If you were friends with us, we would look after you. Plus, we'd appreciate your worth, you would be so useful to us." Dumbledore's words echoed in his head suddenly: _you would be a great asset to the Dark side – you must be aware of this..._

Peter knew that they were trying to influence him, that they were trying to manipulate him. He wasn't completely stupid. But when minutes later he arrived in the bustling, excited hall slightly late, and not one of his friends asked where he had been, he did start to wonder how much of what the boys had said was true. After breakfast, as they walked out the hall, readying themselves to make their final departure from Hogwarts, a Slytherin bumped into him and stuffed a crumpled note into his slightly clammy fist. Before he could demand to know what they wanted from him, he was gone, and all he could do was read the note in silence, his friends, as usual, unaware.

_Star Star Star_

"It's not weird to have a house-warming in a place I've lived all my life, right?" Lucy asked Lily, her forehead crinkled slightly.

Lily laughed, "Not at all. But are you sure you're okay with all this redecorating?" the two friends were currently sitting on upturned crates in what had been Joe's room, now devoid of furniture, a cup of tea in each girl's hand. Lucy had decided that due to the fact that the house was now Lucy and Lily's (her parent's had lived there pretty much since they got married, and having had a steady income, they had been able to pay off the mortgage completely a few years ago) that it was time it was redecorated.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine with it, I mean, the house right now is just a constant reminder of everything I've lost. Besides, we need to get this room looking more like a girl's room!"

Lily grinned, "Well, that would be nice."

"So, I'm thinking we do a white coat first, to make it easier to do whatever colour you want?"

"Sounds great. Ooooh, we can go to IKEA tomorrow to get furniture!"

"Yes! It's times like this when I'm so glad you're muggle born." Lily giggled slightly, putting her empty mug on the floor and tying her vibrant hair up in a pony-tail.

"Right, let's get started."

The two girls worked tirelessly on covering the large room with white paint, until a large brown owl through the open window and landed on one of the crates in the room, sticking out its leg for one of the girls to take it. Putting her paintbrush on the tarpaulin they had laid out on the floor, Lucy read the letter quickly, before saying: "We've got our first Order meeting tonight at 7."

"Great!" Lily smiled. "I can't wait."

Later that evening, at about six thirty, the Marauders appeared in the living room just as the girls were cleaning up.

"Do you guys want any help with painting or anything?" James asked as he admired their handiwork in Lily's new bedroom. "Me and Sirius at least don't have anything to do until September." This was when Auror training started.

"Actually, we're going to IKEA tomorrow, and it would be great if you could help us assemble furniture?" Lucy asked without turning round to look at the boys lounging on her couches, busy doing her make-up with her wand.

"IKEA?" asked Sirius, raising his eyebrows. "What's that, a virus?"

"It's a furniture shop, you dunce." said Lily, rolling her eyes and moving over to sit in between her boyfriend and Sirius. "So will you guys help us?"

"Well after that offensive language, I think not." Sirius said a mock-affronted look on his face. He blew his hair out of his face and folded his arms.

"Aw, honey," Lucy said mockingly, "Ignore the mean lady and just come to see me?"

"Fine," he said, dragging out the 'i'. "James?"

"I'm game."

"Yeah, I'll come too," said Remus. "But I'll have to come later, I have a job interview in the afternoon."

"Oh, Remus!" exclaimed Lily excitedly, "That's amazing! What for?"

"Just a bookshop in Diagon Alley, but I'm happy just to have the interview." He said, shrugging modestly.

The rest of the group all chorused their congratulations, "You better get it," said Lucy, "Or I'll go down there myself and give them a piece of my mind," she laughed, turning round and showing her biceps threateningly.

"You go girl!" exclaimed James, giggling girlishly. At Lily's questioning gaze, he merely shrugged.

"So what about you, Peter, you coming tomorrow?" asked the ginger-haired teen.

"Oh, um, no, I've got something on, sorry." He said, his tone slightly awkward, but nobody questioned it.

"Well, we better get going, want to make a good impression, don't we?" Remus said, getting to his feet.

Sirius rolled his eyes jokingly, but everybody got to their feet nonetheless and filtered their way out the house before apparating to the spot they were told to, where the letter said someone would meet them and bring them to the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix.

_Star Star Star_

Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix changed every week, on a rota, Lucy discovered that night. They were looking for somewhere permanent to do meetings, but at the time they were going to different houses from members of the Order before they found a place. Lucy was quick to put her name down for it, wanting to be as useful as she could.

Everybody in the Order was very friendly, happy to accept the new members into the group. She even saw a few familiar faces – Frank and Alice, newly, Longbottom, who had got married a few months previously, Marlene McKinnon, and a few others. They were meeting in the Longbottom's new home, and they all caught up over tea and biscuits after the meeting where they were introduced.

"So, Lucy, what is this sparkling stone on your hand?" Marlene asked with a devilish grin.

Lucy smiled, "Well, Marlene, this would be an engagement ring."

"Oh, really? Sirius pop the question, did he?" Alice asked, coming over to sit next to the other girls, leaving Frank talking Quidditch with James and Sirius.

"Yeah," she said, "I was surprised, but really excited."

"How did he ask?" Marlene asked.

Lily sighed, "Oh, I do love this story."

Her friend laughed. "Well, he took me for a walk by the lake on our last night of Hogwarts, and told me how much he loved me, and that he knew he wanted to be with me forever, even though we were young. And then he asked, and after that we just lay on the grass and stared at the stars for hours. He even told me a story about a star called Lucy which is an actual diamond."

"Hence the ring," Lily winked.

"That's so sweet," Alice smiled.

"How did Frank propose?" She wanted to know.

Marlene laughed loudly, "Well, there's a story."

"Basically, he took me out to a really romantic restaurant, went down on one knee to propose and ended up, _somehow_, dropping the ring, which, of course, went rolling across the floor of the restaurant." She laughed, "So, I'm sitting there, not really shocked, as I had seen it coming, as my soon to be fiancé is crawling about the restaurant floor on his hands and knees trying to get the ring back."

"And this man's an Auror?" Lucy said with a laugh.

"A clumsy one." Alice chuckled, "He is great at what he does though. Give him a wand and he's amazing, and he's _so_ brave. But he does also have the ability to fall flat on his face on a completely smooth and steady surface." The smile on her slightly round face made it obvious that she loved him more than anything.

"So have you and Sirius thought about when the wedding's going to be?" asked Marlene.

"We're not too sure," Lucy said, "We don't really want to rush into it, but we also don't want to wait too long."

"Fair enough," Alice said, "Me and Frank waited about six months before we got engaged, if I remember correctly. It worked well enough that it meant we had enough time to plan everything."

"That seems really quick to me," Lily said, "My sister's engaged, and they're not getting married for about 2 years I think. She's a muggle though, and a bit of a perfectionist."

"I suppose it's easier with magic on your side though," Marlene said, with a smile.

_Star Star Star_

A sharp crack sounded through the darkly lit, cramped flat in central London, and Joe Chalke, aka Joe Earsdon, awoke with a start. He was lying on the couch, a thin blanket covering his legs, his face unshaven. He grabbed his wand from among the empty cigarette boxes and beer cans on the dirty coffee table and forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pounding throb in his head.

The flat was silent.

Quietly, he made his way into the kitchen, attempting to be stealthy.

"You're about as quiet as a drunk middle aged muggle." A snide voice said from the couch he had just been lying on. Spinning on the spot so fast it made him dizzy, he pointed his wand at the sound to see Bellatrix Black comfortably sitting on his couch as if she owned the place.

"What are you doing in my apartment?" he demanded, his voice too loud for his headache. "Get out!"

"I'm here with a message." She said, examining her long nails. "From the Dark Lord."

Joe felt the blood drain from his face. She carried on without heeding him. "He says that your task must be done within the next two months, otherwise there will be...consequences."

Running a hand through his hair he exclaimed, "I'm working on it, it will be!"

"Yes," Bellatrix said, her eyebrow raised. "Yes, it looks like you're working on it," She looked around his cluttered, untidy apartment critically, her eyes focusing on the empty alcohol bottles and cans and the packets of half eaten food. Getting to her feet, she kicked a dirty sock away from her vicinity and said, "Get yourself sorted out. The Dark Lord is not a particularly forgiving man." She span on the spot, and was gone with another crack that made his head spin.

He fell back onto his couch, his head in his hands, and cried as he finally realised just what had become of him.

_Hallo! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was a bit of a filler, but I hope you still liked it =) See you next update, whenever that shall be =D_


	17. Chapter 16 - Fun at the Park

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!

Recap because it's been so long since I uploaded a chapter that I didn't even remember what was happening and was really glad I made notes and had a plan:

Everybody left school – so we're officially in life after Hogwarts for the Marauders & company

Lucy and Sirius got engaged

Lucy & Lily have moved in together in Lucy's parent's old house.

Joe (Lucy's big brother) has been given a job to do, but we don't know what it is!

The whole gang joined the Order

Chapter 16 – Fun at the Park

Lucy and Lily's house warming party, which was also sort of Sirius and Lucy's engagement party, was in full swing. It was a week after the first Order meeting, and Lucy and Lily had spent most of their time decorating. Lily's room was now perfect, a light blue colour with white furniture and pictures all over the walls, and the living room had also been redecorated a tasteful grown up light brown colour. Lucy had been all for painting it with the dramatic red and gold colours of Gryffindor, until her best friend had patiently reminded her that they didn't know how long they were going to live there for, and that they were now grown ups and should decorate accordingly.

Lucy was just chatting to Frank Longbottom, who was telling her the hilarious story of his first time riding a broom, when she heard the quiet ring of the doorbell over the music. Looking over at Lily, she saw that her housemate was busy laughing at something James had said, so she excused herself and went to answer the door by herself. As she opened the door, someone shouted a joke over to her, and she was laughing, looking away as she opened it. When she turned around, a smile on her face to greet whoever it was, there was nobody there.

Confused, she stepped outside the house, looking around her carefully, pulling her wand out of her pocket with her left hand. Her ears were ringing slightly, and she was suddenly hyper aware of every noise around her. The noise of the party seemed to die down behind her as she closed the front door, taking a step forward. As her foot hit the ground she heard the crunch of paper under the sole of her shoe and she looked down to see a scroll of paper on her doorstep. Confused, she reached down and picked it up, putting her wand back in her pocket as she did so.

The parchment was slightly wet due to the drizzle of rain that was frizzing up her hair, and the ink had run slightly as it opened.

"Lucy?" Sirius had opened the door and she turned quickly, shoving the letter into her pocket.

"Yeah?" she asked, trying her best to look innocent.

He seemed to be regarding her carefully, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just thought I heard something out here and came out to check. But it's fine, everything's fine."

He raised his eyebrows, unsure as to whether to believe her or not...but he shrugged and drew her towards him, hugging her close.

"You know I sort of love you, right?"

She giggled, breathless suddenly, forgetting the note in her pocket, "And you know I sort of love you more, yeah?"

He leant down – she loved the way he did that – and caught her lips in his before whispering, "Impossible." She burrowed into his chest, letting the smell of him envelope her, and he pressed a kiss into her hair...BANG!

The two jumped, wands out with reflexes that only living in a war could bring, before hearing the laughter and seeing their friends staring at the window. James pushed it open and yelled "Come on lovebirds, come back in and join the party!"

The two laughed and, hands clasped, re-immersed themselves in the music and laughter.

"I like it." Mary stated from her place on the fluffy carpet. "Get that one."

Lucy huffed, attempting to turn in the mirror so that she could see the back of the long white dress. "I don't know."

"It is really nice," said Lily slowly. "But I don't know either."

"I like it." Mary said. "Buy it."

"No, I don't like it." Lucy said, going back into the dressing room. "I hate it, in fact."

"Thank goodness." Whispered Mary to Lily. "It was hideous." Lily stifled a chuckle as Alice snorted.

"I heard that!"

"So James is enjoying auror training," Lily said to the girls. "And Lucy says Sirius is too."

"That's good." Said Alice. "I remember when Frank was doing it he was so exhausted the whole time because Mad-Eye worked him so hard."

"Well that is true." Lily said. "James can barely keep his eyes open whenever we're together. But he is enjoying himself at least."

There was a quiet squeal from the changing rooms, and Mary sat up. "Does that mean – " she started before Lucy shyly entered the waiting area and stood in front of the mirrors. The dress she was wearing was strapless, with a loveheart neckline, but intricate lace covered her arms and above the neckline. A beaded flower pattern danced from her armpit to the waist, across the bosom, where the dress flared out, and the flowers turned into a sash that floated down around the dress. It was beautiful.

"What do you think?" Lucy asked. She sounded breathless.

"Oh my goodness, Lucy." Whispered Lily. "It's beautiful. I love it."

"This is it, isn't it?" she said.

"Yes," Alice nodded, "most definitely."

"It is." Lucy turned round as Mary did a war cry of joy and the four friends laughed together.

Later that evening, the dress chosen and sent away for fittings, Lucy headed home alone as Lily was off to see James after training. Sirius was visiting a friend so Lucy had the evening to herself. As she entered her house she suddenly remembered the letter and, making up her mind, she apparated out of the house.

The park was deserted and seemed large to the girl sitting on the bench alone. Shadows were looming across the grass, the trees creating thin, arching shapes on the ground. Lucy shivered and held her wand a little more tightly in her hand as she suddenly wondered why she had come. A single light illuminated the park bench she was sitting on, her body rigid with tension. A small breeze made the trees shiver and Lucy whipped her head round at the noise before letting out her breath in a nervous laugh at her stupidity.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was watching her. His face was pale, contrasting with his black robes as he wondered why she had even come. He almost wanted to cry when he realised how easy this was going to be. As he looked at her small figure, shaking slightly in the small park he nearly convinced himself to turn round and go home – he almost decided that this wasn't for him. But there was no turning back now.

"Lucy."

She whipped round upon hearing her name, standing up as she turned, her wand held out shakily in front of her. She lowered it slightly as she stared at him, wide-eyed. "Joe..." his name left her mouth in a gasp.

"Hi," he said and she laughed shakily at the awkward greeting. "It's been a long time, little sister."

She stared at him for a while. "The note – it was from you?"

"Yeah." He said.

She pulled her eyebrows together before saying "Then what the heck was with all this cloak-and-dagger stuff? You could have just come to the house, you know?"

He wouldn't look at her eyes, and he noticed quietly that she had lowered her wand. Too trusting, too innocent..."I just thought – that after the funeral and what happened there that maybe you wouldn't want to see me."

"Joe, you're my brother. I care about my family, no matter what happened in the past." Her voice was soft as she looked up at him, assuming the lack of eye contact was out of guilt about what had happened between them. "Come back to the house with me?" she asked, "At least for a cup of coffee?"

He sighed and then nodded, and as she turned around he realised this was his only chance.

Lucy was just walking away as she felt a blunt force hit her back, and she fell to the ground with a grunt. Lying on her face, she felt the start of a pain begin to set through her body and she forced herself onto her side, holding herself up with her elbow. She was shaking and sweat was pouring down her face as she felt exhaustion fill her and she looked up to see her brother staring down at her, face flushed, eyes wide. The park seemed to grow darker as she realised what her older brother had done to her.

He was holding a shaking wand in front of him, pointing it at her as she went to grab her wand.

"Expelliarmus!" he said, flicking his wand and hers flew away across the grass. The two seemed to stare at her for a while before he whispered "I'm so sorry". He seemed to take a deep breath and Lucy said with all her strength, "Joe...please...don't do this..."

He took another breath, and then another, and before she knew it he was hyperventilating before he whispered something and then disappeared with a sharp crack.

He was gone. And Lucy was alone.

She slumped to the ground, tears passing down her cheeks unwittingly, sobs echoing around the park. With her last strength, she whispered "accio wand" and attempted to send a silver animal across London. Not knowing whether she had succeeded or not, the pain flooded her body and she knew no more.

At the other end of the city, a dark haired man was walking through the cold, wet streets of London, when he suddenly stopped, staring straight in front of him.

_A/N _

_Well, hello there! It's nice to see you all! I hope this chapter wasn't too much of a disappointment, and that there are actually people out there reading it. I'm actually writing this currently in my university's library, because – surprise surprise, I'm procrastinating! _

_ Yeah, so I'm currently doing a course in English & Creative writing – not really coming across in this, but I promise I'm learning so much about writing and hopefully you'll eventually be able to tell that in these things! Anyway, I hope you're all well and that you enjoyed this chapter! If you have any comments please let me know and I would, as usual, adore a review from any of you who may have read this! =) _


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